““So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Matthew 6:34 NLT
This is one of those verses that we find in Scripture that we sometimes would refer to as profound. I say that because it seems too natural or at least what happens for us all, we worry about tomorrow.
What is so profound here is that Jesus is saying don't do that because there is enough to deal with today. Can I get an Amen? He is right on target, you focus on what may happen or will happen tomorrow and miss today.
I have said many times that if we pause and look at our life, even though there may be something that is a cause for concern. We have probably had many more good days than bad. Right now several, of you are humming the song "Don't worry be happy" and if you weren't you are now.
When we worry we put ourselves into a dangerous situation. Worry can cause health issues physically, mentally, and spiritually. When we begin to worry we place a tremendous burden on ourselves that should not be there. Isn't that what Jesus is saying, don't worry?
There is no reason to act like there are not a lot of things occurring around us that affect our lives. Let's be honest about it because there certainly are and in lies the problem for you. When they occur what do you do, how do you respond, and how do you handle it? We have to do something and in lies the problem. Our human reflex is to tell ourselves that we don't deserve what is occurring. We didn't do anything and this is actually a reaction to the fact that we have and we believe we are being punished. When in fact, we are simply dealing with the consequences of our actions.
You see, there are days when it is not what is actually happening in our life that causes our concerns. It is what is going on even in distant lands abroad. We all are aware that the world is truly a smaller place than it was in the past. Technology has been the reason for this whether in travel or communications. When something occurs in another hemisphere we know within a a few moments to a few minutes.
You know when you study the end of time and books such as Revelation you can see today how possible some things can be. Here is just one example.
Revelation 11:3-12 English Standard Version
3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”
4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.
5 And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed.
6 They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.
7 And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them,
8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.
9 For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb,
10 and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.
11 But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.
12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.
When you look specially at verses 7-12 you see how in this day and time how easy and normal that would be to occur. People all over the world able to watch something at the same time live. Certainly that would never have been the case even a generation ago.
Jesus knew this would happen and knew that mankind would have to be able to deal with today and tomorrow. He also knew all too well that we worry when we don't know what is going on and how it will affect our lives. When it is all said and done He reminded us not to worry. Will there be concern and wonder? Well, of course, but we can't add worry.
In God's Grace,
Elbert Nasworthy