“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Matthew 6:34 (NIV)
Worry is something that affects every person, but when worry becomes overwhelming, it can be paralyzing. I am no expert in psychology or counseling, but I can share how scripture has helped me during some of my most worrisome times.
Whatever worries us, God intends to give us all the help we need, but He does it one day at a time, because He is a “one day at a time” kind of God. We only need to know how God has interacted with His people throughout history, to understand that His basic message is the same, “Take one day at a time.”
When Elijah, the prophet, was being pursued by Queen Jezebel, who ordered him to be killed, he ran for his life into the wilderness, and in despair, he sat under a Juniper tree and begged God to end his life and just let him die. After falling asleep, an angel came and touched him to wake him up, saying, “Arise and eat!”
The angel brought him warm, freshly baked bread and a jar of cold water. Elijah ate and drank, and that same angel brought him fresh baked bread and water every day, for 40 days. God reveals His lovingkindness and care for our whole being, even in our darkest moments, in the way He nourished Elijah, strengthening his body, mind, soul and spirit, one day at a time. (1 Kings 19:4-8)
God did a similar thing when He sent manna from heaven, to the Israelites in the wilderness. Those manna wafers appeared on the ground, fresh each morning, and each day’s portion was enough to satisfy the hunger of all the people for the day. When anyone attempted to stash their own supply of manna and save it for the next day, it rotted and was found to be full of worms. It was God’s way of saying,
“I will give you what you need, but it will be one day at a time.”
Jesus tells us in today’s scripture not to worry about tomorrow. Then He repeated that same message in the Lord’s Prayer, telling us to ask for our “daily bread”, not tomorrow’s bread or next week’s bread. In fact, the only mention of the future in the entire Lord’s Prayer, is in the phrase,
“Thy kingdom come.” God’s kingdom is coming, and we can put all our hope and energy into trusting in that future, while we look to God to give us what is needed today.
These scripture stories remind us that after we have done our best today, then we pray, and leave the rest in God’s hands.
Once our thoughts start drifting into what we should have done in the past, or what needs to be done in the future, we have stepped out of the present moment, and into the world of anxiety.
We cannot change yesterday and we have no guarantee that we will see tomorrow, so we live in the present, where we find a peace that surpasses all understanding.
There’s a reason that God declared to Moses that His name is “I Am.” God is eternally present and He reminds us to stay in the present moment with Him. He wants us to call upon Him in each new day, because He is the ever present Lord of now and today.
I’m still learning to train my mind to take one day at a time, and to release my grip on tomorrow. If I approach each day, listening in silence for the whispered message of the Holy Spirit, who speaks to our spirit, just as the angel touched Elijah, to say, “Arise and eat,” God’s Spirit is saying the same thing to us today. He wants us to receive our spiritual nourishment in Jesus, who is our manna, the bread of heaven and living water, offered to us, fresh each day.
When we make an effort to live in the present, one day at a time, our repeated effort becomes a daily habit. Instead of letting our problem steal our joy, we pray for God’s help, and wake up each day to see that He is sending us an angel to make something beautiful out of today.
Lord, we surrender all the worries of today to you, because you love and care for us more than anyone, giving us what we need, and sustaining us with your peace and nourishment, one day at a time. Amen
