We Are Given Today

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, but for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matt 6:33-34)

My friend, how much energy do you spend worrying about tomorrow? What if my family reacts poorly to my decision? What if I don’t get the next step in my career? What if I can’t afford the house? What if I get burnt-out?

 What about puzzling out and trying to understand yesterday? Was it my fault? How could that happen to me? What if it happens again? Far too often we burden ourselves with tomorrow’s worries and yesterday’s sorrows that we neglect to rejoice in today’s provision.

I remember driving to work a few years ago, burdened and stressed by the hundred upcoming things and the pressure of tomorrow. I got to work, and I could not get out of my car. The expectations of the moment weren’t too much to bear, but because I carried the stress of tomorrow on my shoulders, I was paralyzed. All I could do was cry. Honestly, it was embarrassing.

We are given today. That’s it. And in today the Lord is good. We can leave yesterday’s sorrows and tomorrow’s worries where they belong.

That’s easy to say, though. It’s especially easy to say when the events of today are pleasant. But this is true even on the hardest of days. I know it is even true on days much harder than I’ve had to bear. It is true because Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow (Heb 13:8). It is true because Christ transcends time itself to being us eternal comfort in who He is.

Christ knew. He knew all the wisdom of divinity and truths of the world. He was there, after all, when the world was made and when the first second of time passed. Christ also knew all the limits and temptations and exhaustions of being human. He knew the restraint of time and weariness of toil and heaviness of sorrow.

And in his perfect knowledge of time, humanity, and wisdom, He issues this command: do not worry about tomorrow. We can trust He knows what is best because He is God, but we can also trust that He knows our best because He was man.

He knows that it is best to take it one day at a time.

That is why, in Lamentations 3:21-24 God reminds us that we are to receive new mercies every morning. That is why God provided new mana each day. That is why Christ instructs us to ask for our daily bread (Matt 6:11). That is why our calling is to daily take up our cross and follow him (Luke 9:23). We are limited creatures, Christ knew this. But our limitations only point to the Provider. Our daily need for bread only points to the One who daily feeds our souls.

I’ve been asking everyone if they tend to think more of the past or the future. I get mixed answers. Some question the past and hope for the future. Others glorify the past and fear the future. Either way, thinking too much of either puts us in a position where we don’t come daily for God’s mercy. We can’t appreciate the beauty that He is working today. Because, just like the flowers of the field or the sunset in the sky, the gift of today won’t come again. That is the curse of time for us.

I wonder why we tend to live our lives in the rearview mirror or the GPS directions five steps ahead. I think it’s the Devil trying to distract us from the urgency of eternity as acted upon today.

For although Christ calls us not to worry about tomorrow, He is very clear that we are to be future-minded. However, our future is more than just “what job should I take” or “will I get married” or “will my budget be able to withstand the increased gas costs?”

His bent is for eternity, and His calling for our lives is that we obey today for things that matter forever.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (Ecc 3:11)

There is a great purpose to our daily obedience. We are called to throw off everything that hinders (Heb 12:1), including the pain of the past and the plans of the future. We are called to cast all our anxieties on him (1 Peter 5:7), including the worry that we’ve peaked or the stress of tomorrow.

This doesn’t mean negligence. Christ isn’t asking us to YOLO our lives (can we still say YOLO these days?) or cease to analyze the past or make plans for the future. He is calling us to come daily to Him for mercy and surrender our need for control. In fact, to stubbornly cling to yesterday or tomorrow is disobedience. There is a cost to letting today go by without obeying the Lord.

“’Sufficient for the day is it’s own trouble.’ And sufficient for today is today’s grace. Today’s grace won’t solve tomorrow’s troubles. The only way today’s grace addresses tomorrow is by helping us cast our anxieties on God. But this is a huge help, because it frees us to focus on the one place we will experience God’s grace today: today.” (Jon Bloom on Desiring God)

My hope for you is that you experience the freedom of today. There is space in today to worship, space to love others, space to trust God, space to be thankful. When we look to Christ over the worries of the future and the burdens of the past, we can see those spaces. It frees us. And it makes it so clear that today has a purpose far beyond us.

I’m well aware that you already know these truths I’ve written about today. It’s a well-worn subject for our anxiety-prone generation. But I preach to my own heart and seek to remind you as well that we serve a trustworthy God, a holy God, a loving God. He has shown Himself again and again to be true, merciful, and sufficient. And those truths are true TODAY.

I pray that we both learn how to keep our pasts and futures safe in the hands of God. We never controlled them anyway, so holding onto them only occupies our hands to a useless task. But we are called to have open hands to the Lord (another future post). Then and only then, are we free to use both hands for the kingdom of God. Then, and only then, can we experience the true peace of God.

We are given today, and today God is good. I will leave yesterday’s sorrows and tomorrow’s worries in His safe hands.

Until next time, when I challenge myself (and you) to a simple obedience with the second part of this series,

Hannah