Enough Trouble

Many times our anxiety is caused by the uncertainty of our future. We stress about things that haven’t happened and may never happen. The other side of anxiety focuses on the past. For me, it’s the future. My past is just that, my past. For the most part I don’t live there any more. However, the future is my anxiety. This at times robs me of the present. When living in the future we miss what is happening today. We may know and understand today's happenings, but we don’t truly experience them. When this happens we might overreact, or underreact. If our anxiety is rooted in the future, we need to reverse course and start living in the present day. I know from experience how hard this can be. But let’s consider the words of Jesus.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34). These words of Jesus are part of His Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew chapters 5-7. There is a lot packed into this sermon that helps us live our life in ways that glorify God. Not worrying about the future is one of these instructions. Yes, we must plan for our future. However, we don’t need it to be our main focus. A focus that takes us out of the present. Jesus isn’t telling us not to plan for tomorrow. He’s telling us to not worry about it. Once we have our plan we don’t have to continue living tomorrow. Since tomorrow hasn’t come yet, and the things we are worried about haven’t happened, there is nothing we can do about it. We can’t jump forward and address our concerns.

Jesus says that each day has enough to worry about. There will be plenty of things today to address. We don’t need to add more by worrying about tomorrow. When tomorrow comes, we deal with it. With the help of the Holy Spirit we can stop worrying about tomorrow and the days after it. Why? Because God is already there. He already knows what we will face and has plans to help us meet anything tomorrow throws at us. Nothing about tomorrow surprises Him. God is timeless. He is the past, present, and future. I think it comes down to this: Are we trust our future to God? Or, are we trusting it to ourselves? Here is our anxiety about tomorrow. If we place tomorrow in the hands of Jesus we can stop worrying about it. We can let it go, allowing us to focus on today, for today will have plenty for us to deal with.