Consider this an addendum to Monday’s devotional, which focused on the hymn “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow.” I quoted the Master, who said this…
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
(Matthew 6:34, NKJV)
Somone might read that last line and wonder what the phrase “sufficient for the day is its own trouble” is all about. In the old King James translation the phrase is “sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” So what does it mean?
Put simply, the Lord is saying there’s enough evil in the current day to overwhelm and kill you if you let it. That might seem pessimistic of Jesus but it’s not meant to be a grim statement, especially when you consider the context around it. The Lord’s point that He’s been making is about tomorrow not today. Don’t worry about tomorrow, He says. And to that I say “Okay, but that’s not easy, Lord. I know tomorrow is coming. I don’t know what it holds.”
I remember being in preaching school and one of my instructors saying the biggest hurdle a new minister will have to get over in his first year on the job is the reality that Sunday comes every week. Every Monday you’ll go to work with the knowledge that Sunday is six days away, and you better have a sermon ready because one way or another the brethren are going to be in those pews on Sunday. And the next Sunday it starts all over. Every week. It never stops. It just keep coming and coming and
Sorry, where was I?
Right, tomorrow. I know tomorrow is coming (unless the Lord comes instead, of course), but I don’t know what tomorrow brings, and that disconnect is terrifying sometimes. But think about it this way: If I did know what tomorrow would bring then I could prepare for it. You might think that’s a good thing, but Jesus says it’s not. If I knew what tomorrow would bring I would spend all day today preparing for it…and then what? Then I’d be so busy preparing for tomorrow that all the evil of today would swallow me up. That’s what Jesus is saying in Matthew 6:34.
I need to trust God to deal with tomorrow; I don’t need to worry about it. I need to focus on today and to do that, I need to lean on God, because He knew what tomorrow would bring yesterday, so He’s already prepared to help me through it!