How many of us, if we are honest, live stressed-out
and anxious/worried about tomorrow? If you answered yes to that question, you
are not alone. When we live our lives projecting tomorrow’s outcomes we forfeit
the grace God supplies to us daily, not in lump sums. How many of us try and
store God’s grace for us? We believe with enough planning and control we can
predict outcomes as well as secure our future. But we could not be more wrong.
How many of us have tried to get a close handle on our lives by predicting the
outcomes of our lives. We try and analyze and figure-out every possible outcome
and situation until we become exhausted and frustrated. Life happens and we
cannot live on tomorrow’s provisions for today.
Living
in the past or projecting the future will cause stress, anxiety, worry, fear,
fatigue and possible illness.
Some of us try and live in the past because we have
not “settled” our past or properly let-go and healed our hurts as well as past
failures. Some of us try and figure out future outcomes because we live in fear
and at the root of that fear is a lack of trust in God. We might say we trust
God but deep down where no one else can see, we felt we have been let down by
God, forgotten by Him, or discouraged in the waiting process. So we take matters into our own hands
because we feel God has not come through for us. We don’t want to admit
this because we might look bad or maybe others may not think we are really
Christians, or for that matter even love God. I will be the first to say that I
love God, the Father, His Son and the Holy Spirit and I am a born-again
believer but I have struggled in this area of control and trust. At times the
control and trust waxes and wanes but underneath it all, I have struggled to
make sense of some very difficult matters in my life. I hope I am not alone in
this. I have prayed for certain things, people, and desires for years and
sometimes they have become worse, and other times it is a slow trickle to the
desired outcome I want, and then there are those prayers and cries that seem to
go unnoticed. I said seemed to go unnoticed, because do our prayers really go
unnoticed or is it not the time or maybe something that would not be in our
best interest? I have so many questions, I am sure like you that I don’t know
the answers to. Such as the inability to have children, desiring to be married,
sickness of a child/family member, health issues, or even the pain a parent
feels for their prodigal child. I have felt many of these personally and I can
say for me that is why I developed a need to be in control, secure my future,
and to analyze my life because nothing seemed to be in control, so I took
control. I projected my future because I lived in fear. Fear of the unknown,
fear things will not get better, fear that it will always be this way. Fear
causes you to think and behave irrationally. Life seemed uncertain and
unpredictable to me so I had to take over and mange my life.
Taking life as it comes and living in the present day
is a great way to allow your fears to take a backseat. Living in the past will
also cause you great stress, so being and living in the day you have is very
healing. Why be anxious for the things
you truly do not know will or won’t happen, or why live in regret and past
failures? This is not easy to do if you have tried to control your life or
try and project possible outcomes of your future. This will not be easy, but let’s
start with surrendering. Surrendering all
forms of control, figuring-out, analyzing, and living in past regrets. This
also entails trusting God with your life and the lives of others you love. This step requires faith and letting-go.
If
you live one day at a time, God will supply you the grace you need for that
day, to handle the problems and situations that happen that day.
However, you can’t take today’s grace and store it for tomorrow. God supplies
what you need for that day, not on yesterday or tomorrow. Think about how stress-free you will feel when you live in the present.
Therefore
do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has
enough trouble of its own.
Matthew
6:34, NIV
Give
your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up
about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever
hard things come up when the time comes.
Matthew
6:34, Message
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