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.
Reflect
and ponder: Do you live in the present or do you live
in the past and in the future? What causes you not to live in the present
moment?
Counselor’s
corner: 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 seem 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.
MEDITATE
ON THESE SCRIPTURES:
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
