Recently I looked at the schedule set in front of me. Taken as a whole, it was rather overwhelming and I was having a hard time figuring out how we would manage to get through it all. So I made a decision. Having read it through once, I would only look at it one day at a time. And that worked for me.
Life can be like that. Things pile up and you really don’t know how you are going to get through it all. If you solve one problem, another one is waiting to be dealt with. You run out of ability to figure out how you’re going to cope. And you sit there worrying about how you’re going to manage things that haven’t happened yet, might not ever happen, and even if they do are largely out of your control anyway.
My decision might have been a little risky, but I did have Biblical support. Jesus told us not to live in tomorrow’s problems. Deal with what’s in front of you today, and let God worry about tomorrow.
I don’t think he meant we are to be irresponsible in terms of long-term planning. Sometimes the decision we make today has consequences for the future, and today is the day we have to make it. But all too often, we live way ahead of where we need to.
Why we do it is simple. In a word, fear. We are afraid of what may happen down the road, so we try to control events that may or may not take place through imagining how we are going to deal with them.
And what I have so often found is this. Things I spent a lot of energy worrying about never happen. Or they turn out to be resolved by circumstances I could never have foreseen. That is the providence of God. He knows the future. He has a plan to deal with your problems before you know you even have them.
Fear is a very powerful force. And sometimes a good one. We need to take responsible decisions to avoid negative consequences. The problem comes when we begin to fear things that may never happen at all.
Preachers need to keep on hammering away at two themes: God’s sovereign power and his covenant love. He will never take you to a place where he will not in every way provide for you.
Jesus really did say we were to live one day at a time. But you can’t do that without a conviction that God is able and willing to look after your tomorrow better than you can.
Trying to control the future and make it better for us frequently has the perverse effect of messing it up. Try leaving things to God. He has a way of working things out better than we can.
His grace is given for today only. Tomorrow belongs to him.
He can be trusted with it.
CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.
AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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