One Day at a Time

 Every now and then God reminds me that I need to walk one day at a time. Today He did that as I was considering the scriptures that say:  “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.” (Or, another version: “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about it’s own things. Sufficient for the day is it’s own trouble.”) And also the prayer:  “Give us this day our daily bread.”

   So apparently, each day has its problems, its troubles, its evils. They are “sufficient’. They are enough. What’s that mean? Enough for what? Sufficient for what? Sufficient to keep us busy? Is that all we are to do – keep busy? Each day has enough for us to worry about? Is that all we’re supposed to do – worry? Sufficient for us to “get through”?  Is that our goal --  to get through, to make it through, each day?  We just need to get through today, and then tomorrow we’ll have other things to worry about and we can concentrate on getting through that day? “Getting through”, surviving – is that our aim, our task?  For some people throughout the world, that is their task, and it’s a huge task.

   But that doesn’t seem to be all that these verses are talking about. These are, of course, the words of Jesus – as He is calling us to follow Him. Jesus isn’t calling us just to survive. We’re called to more than that. We’re called to overcome. Not to be survivalists, but to be overcomers.

     Every day, these verses tell us, there is enough – enough trouble, enough evil, to occupy us in this task of overcoming. So what is all this evil that we confront every day? What’s the problem? Some days, yes, there are some big problems. The rent is due and I don’t have it. My spouse is mad at me. The car won’t start. A term paper is due and I don’t have it done. I’m not well. Those are troubles, alright. But evils? I wouldn’t really call them evils. We think of evils as great big, monstrous things – like robbers at the door or screams in the night or maybe learning that we have cancer in our body. We don’t face those kinds of things every day.

     Well, every day there is, as they say, the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world is continually holding out it’s enticements to me (loud and clear – and persistent). The devil is tempting me, whispering in my ear. And my flesh is saying “Yes! Yes! I want it! Give me more! More! God didn’t really mean what He said, anyway.”

Yeah, that’s enough to overcome, that’s sufficient. For we’ve been called, as I mentioned, to follow Jesus. To follow Him in walking in unity with the Father, to follow Him in walking according to the Spirit, instead of according to our flesh. Doing whatever is necessary to fulfill the will of the Father, instead of our own will – today.  Yeah, that’s enough, I’d say. That’s sufficient. Today – that’s when we need to do it. Not later on when I get stronger. Not on Sunday when I’m in the midst of worship. Not tomorrow, because that never comes. Today. “Today”, it says, “if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” “Today, while it is called today.”

Ouch – that doesn’t leave any wiggle room!

      No wonder we need to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.”  Man can’t live on bread alone, Jesus said, but by “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”  That’s the daily bread we need – and it doesn’t just mean that we need to read some scripture every day, but more than that:  we need to hear God’s voice. Wow – every day. And not shut it out, but receive it and walk in it. Yeah, that’s enough.

 

 I think I’ll need some help.