Text: Matthew 6:34
Now we come to the final
conclusion and cure for worry and anxiety. “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.” One songwriter captured the words of our
Lord in the following words of his song:
I’m only human, I’m just a man.
Lord, help me believe in what I could be
And all that I am,
Just show me the stairway
That I have to climb.
Lord, for my sake
Teach me to take one day at a time.
One day at a time, Lord Jesus,
That’s all I’m asking from you.
Just give me the strength
To do everyday what I have to do.
Yesterday is gone, Lord Jesus;
And tomorrow may never be mine.
Lord, help me today, show me the way,
One day at a time.
The great secret of living a
happy, healthy, holy and fruitful life is living without worry about the past
and without anxiety concerning the future. The true child of God settles the
past with God. He has confessed the sins of the past and he has been forgiven.
Now he shuts out the past and counts everything belonging to the past dead,
buried, never to rise again. Locking the past behind an iron door, he throws
the key of remembrance away! The future is yet unborn, so he leaves that with
God until it comes. Leaving the past and future with God, he summons all grace
received, strength and courage to face the challenges of each day.
1. LEAVE TOMORROW WITH GOD AND HIS GOOD FORESIGHT
Text: Matthew 6:34; Psalm 127:1,2;
James 4:13-15;Exodus 16:16-21; Acts 12:5-11; 16:25-35; Jeremiah 10:23; 29:11-13; Isaiah 55:9-11;
Lamentations 3:22-26; Deuteronomy 33:25; Joshua 3:5.
“Take therefore no thought for
the morrow.” It is an unnecessary distraction to worry or be anxious about
tomorrow. There are men who waste their last hours on earth fretting over a
morrow they never see! If we are preserved till the morrow, will it not bring
with it tomorrow’s God? What good can your worry do? It does not empty tomorrow
of its problems and trials, but it empties today of its strength and comfort.
Worrying about tomorrow does not enable you to escape future trouble; it only
weakens you and makes you unfit to cope with those challenges when tomorrow
eventually comes. Worrying about tomorrow often leads to hurtful imagination
which produces wrong thinking and self-induced negative prophecies and
tormenting fear. Don’t try to cross the bridge before you get there, but
cheerfully carry the cross of today and leave the future to God. He will be
there before you get there. When tomorrow dawns and its door swings open, the
power and promises of God will be waiting for you to welcome you to a new day.
“As thy days, so shall thy strength be ”
(Deuteronomy 33:25).
2. LABOUR TODAY WITH GOD’S GUIDANCE AND GREAT FAITH
Text: Matthew 6:34; Psalm 118:24; Ecclesiastes
9:10; John 9:4,5; 1 Chronicles 16:37; Ezra 3:4; Psalm 104:23,24; Proverbs
14:23; 2 Thessalonians 3:8-12; 2 Corinthians 6:2.
We have learnt that we are to
pray for our daily bread. We can ask for strength to finish today’s duty. Our
business is with today; we can have divine supply for today’s consumption. To
import the possible burden of tomorrow into the duties of this day will
decrease or deplete the strength which is meant for only today’s
responsibility. When tomorrow brings its burden, the God of tomorrow will bring
with it sufficient grace and strength. Today will require all the vigour we
have to deal with its immediate “evils” or problems; there is no need to import
cares from the future. To load today with trials that have not really arrived
would be to overload it. Anxiety is dangerous, but anxiety about things which
have not yet happened is doubly dangerous, an unnecessary venom that poisons
and destroys us.
Worry about the future is
useless; it achieves nothing. It is a pure waste of energy. Worrying about the
future cripples you in the present; it lessens your efficiency with regard to
today. The wisest thing is not to spend your energy looking for solution to
imaginary problems of the future which may never happen. Everyday has its problems
and challenges; everyday has a daily quota of problems. If you want to go
through life without being caged under unbearable loads of problems, treat each
day as a unit. Do not carry yesterday or tomorrow with you. Live for today in
God’s strength and at the end of the day, rest in the Lord.
3. LET TODAY BE A GATEWAY TO A GLORIOUS FUTURE
Text: Matthew 6:34; Exodus
12:14,22,23,28,37,41 ; Genesis 40:6-14,21 with 41:9-13,37-44; Joshua 3:5;
Proverbs 31:17-25; Malachi 3:16-18; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18; Luke 23:39-43;
Daniel 12:3.
Each day comes with problems
and promises, obstacles and opportunities, burdens and benefits,
disappointments and daily duties, setbacks and steppingstones. Welcome each day
as a new gift from God. It comes with lessons to learn and challenges to face
in order to strengthen your moral and spiritual muscles. Welcome the day with a
cheerful heart, saying, “This is the day !” (Psalm 118:24). Yesterday is but a
dream and tomorrow only a vision; but today well lived makes every yesterday a
dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Today is your most
precious possession, the only sure
possession. It is unproductive to embitter the present by brooding and
worrying over things that happened in the past. Worrying destroys our ability
to think positively, and to concentrate on making positive changes. Receive
each day as a gift from the Hands of your heavenly Father. Go through each day
with the “work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ ” (1 Thessalonians 1:3). Do
something by the grace of God and through the strength supplied by the Holy
Spirit each day. Let today and everyday of this year be a gateway to a glorious future.
May the grace and peace of the Lord keep and preserve you in Jesus' name. Amen.
May the grace and peace of the Lord keep and preserve you in Jesus' name. Amen.
== Culled from DCLM Bible Study Outline ==
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