Begin the Day with Trust to Shove off "Starting Troubles"

1. Well Begun, Half-Done But a Blessed Start Fully Done

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad.

— Ps. 118:24

"Well begun, half-done" is a golden rule pronounced by ancient sages for successful people who get very good results in their life. I always remember this maxim whenever I start something new in my life. In anything I do or perform, I am very keen on the starting point. Many times, I struggle at the beginning of my day, my week, my month, and surely my New Year. I call this "a starting trouble." But once I choose that important moment of starting with a right perspective and attitude, everything seems to be okay.

The same is true in the lives of successful men and women. They always begin their undertakings with great interest, full of trust and hope, being blessed by God and their neighbors. They make sure their efforts start at a good time and good place with good opportunity, good plan, and sufficient finance, plus with good attitudes and efficient helping hands. Once they begin their business with these blessings, the entire project reaches its completion as they have willed. Every day of life should start well so that the rest of the year will be happy and fruitful.

While humanity is prone to seeking secular ways and means to make their start perfect, we Christians — instead of making recourse to human power or any worldly wisdom — want all that we begin to be filled with the Lord's graces and blessings. According to our Christian faith, as God blessed the OT people of God through his messengers and elders, we too have been blessed by God abundantly through our faith-filled adherence and commitment to his love call, plus through our active participation ritually and actually in his church's discipleship. We discover that our God's blessings are triple: priestly, kingly, and prophetic.

The first one is priestly blessing: In the book of Numbers (6:22–27), God tells Moses that he is imparting the power to Aaron and his sons to bless his people. Aaron and his sons have been chosen by God and anointed by him to act as priests in his name. In other words, they have been chosen to be the channel of blessing from God to the people. "So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them," says the Lord. Each one of us, through our baptism, is called to act like a priest between God and our community. Just as Jesus has become the priest of God, so we are made into priests through our baptismal anointing. We hold a power to bless each other as mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife, leader, friend.

Second is a kingly blessing: Paul, in his letter to Galatians (4:4–7), makes us aware of our identity and our birthright. Through our baptism as Christians, we have become sons and daughters of God. We, like Christ, have inherited the power and dignity to be called the children of God. Just as Christ has become the Son of God and inherited the kingly blessing from his Father, so too we inherit the kingly power from God. That is the blessing inherited from God. Kingliness is usually an inheritance of power and throne. We, as adopted children of God, have received already the blessing from our Father — the ability to control, to manage, to maintain, to lead, to solve, to fix, and to empower others with the same power.

And the third blessing is a prophetic one: We firmly believe that our God, who has spoken in the past to our ancestors through the prophets, has spoken to us in these last days through the Son (Heb. 1:1–2). Everything about Jesus's future has been prophetically told in the scriptures. So every day Jesus and his followers, specially his parents, have lived their lives in accordance with those prophetic promises.

Consequently, they have been liberated from undue anxieties about their past, present, and future. In the same way, the Lord also has prophetically promised about us and for us in the scriptures. Before our conception, he has written our names in his life's book. He has designed a beautiful and fruitful future for every one of us. He too has promised to be with us till the end of ages. This is a great prophetic blessing for us. Therefore, with Paul, we are fully convinced that "all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28–39).

By our baptism and our sincere adherence and commitment to his love call, we have been blessed with the priestly, kingly, and prophetic blessings from God. So let us bless ourselves with this positive faith thinking at every moment of starting any of our daily accomplishments. So many unexpected things may have jolted us, shaken us, or shocked us in the past. But still, we hold on to the words of God about his blessings. Let us hand over the past and the future to the Almighty. The present only should be in our eyes.

While we drive our cars, we do not look back constantly to be safe; we only see what is coming back to us through the side or rear mirrors. So shall we use the past as a side effect to our future orchestra. The past failures and even sins will assist us in straightening out our attitudes and our decision-making. As the Lord exhorts us, let us not be overanxious about the future, which is solely in his hands. The only day given to us by God is this day, this week, and this year. The promised blessings are there in abundance. God is blessing us with the ability to bless others, the power to lead and manage, and the luck to hold an eternally propitious word of fortune; we are predestined for good and good alone to enjoy everything that is good born out of his love.

2. Start Everything with Providential Calculation

The Lord bless you and keep you!

— Num. 6:24

We are humans gifted with rationality and intelligence. Unlike animals or birds, we are anxious about how, why, and how long we survive and live our lives. From the day of humanity's origin, humans have attempted to calculate their living period in this world, how to avoid the curses of life, and how to enjoy its blessings in that period.

Many make a natural calculation, which is based on the stars in which we are conceived and born. Horoscope, astrology, numerology, and palm reading are some of the sciences generated out of such anxious calculation. Some others use an artificial calculation through which, in ancient period, humans have calculated and measured their living time by the sun's movement, even by...