Sufficient Unto the Day

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Matthew 6:33-34

Christ issued this exhortation to his disciples and others gathered on a hillside to hear the Sermon on the Mount. It followed instruction on the model prayer, instructions on living life in general, and the beatitudes.

In the verses immediately preceding those quoted here, he urges his listeners not to worry about where their daily needs will be coming from.

“Look at the birds and the flowers,” he says. “Doesn’t God take care of them? How much more valuable are you than the birds and the flowers?”

There are a lot of good Christians who are seeing worry and fear take over their lives these days. I know it, because I deal with the same fears on a daily basis.

Fears of an ever more bloated and domineering government; fears of a society in decline beyond reclamation; fears of ever declining economic conditions; fears of a year just past that is at the same time the worst year we’ve seen as Americans in many years and is the best year we’re likely to see for many more years.

Who can help but worry about what tomorrow may bring? I wonder about what the next year is likely to bring and what the future looks like beyond that.

But think about the people to whom Christ was speaking. The Hebrew people were enslaved by the Roman Empire. They were in that period between being conquered by the Romans and the persecutions of Nero, Domitian and others. They were, in other words, in the worst year they’d seen in decades and in the best year they were going to see for many more decades.

But Christ is urging them to forget about worrying about the state and even about business. Trust God to provide and God will provide.

What’s more, he urges them (and us) not to let worries over tomorrow overwhelm the work we have to do today.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

The problems we encounter today are more than sufficient for the day. Tomorrow will bring its own problems and there is a fairly good chance that the problems that actually come with the new day will not be the ones we worried about today.

That admonition also encourages us to stay focused on the work of the day. It is impossible to perform the day’s tasks adequately if we are focused on what we worry about for the morrow.

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. So do what you can in God’s strength each day and lean on Him to deal with what is beyond you.