Tomorrow’s Troubles—Today?

Matthew 6:34

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So it used to be this really intense struggle whenever I would get up front to lead worship or to preach. And as I tell you about it, it’s going to sound a little weird. And some of the details might even be a little bit, a little gross. But just go with me here, okay?

When I was first a vicar, a student pastor, and then a pastor, I was terrified that I would throw up in front of church. I was. I wouldn’t hardly eat anything before I would get up there. I was just like, what? What would happen? And it wasn’t, it wasn’t because I was afraid of public speaking. I’ve always been comfortable talking in front of people, but it goes back to there was a time in high school before a football game, and I was a big football player. I was so excited that I got so worked up, I threw up. And so then when I started getting into the ministry, I was just afraid. Like, what if that were to happen up there, how terrible would that be? But then here’s the interesting thing is, is I would wake up in the morning, I wouldn’t feel sick to my stomach, but then I would worry about being sick to my stomach. And then, you know, what would happen to my stomach? I would get sick to my stomach. It was interesting how thinking about being sick to my stomach, I started to experience being sick to my stomach.

Now, why do I share this story with you? And first of all, actually, before I get into the why, I should clarify, this is not an issue anymore. I have full breakfast and then I go to worship and all is good. The reason I share it is actually it’s part of a reflection I have on when Jesus in his sermon on the Mount, he says,

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:34)

For the longest time I didn’t really understand why those words were comforting. Okay, sufficient for each day is its own trouble. That doesn’t sound that comforting to me. But then I realize, especially when I think about the Lord’s Prayer, I say, give us this day our daily bread. And literally when you read through it, it says, give us this day our bread for this day. We have a God who provides what we need for this day. Today he gives us what we need for today. But in the way our minds work is if we worry about what’s happening tomorrow, we can actually start to experience the trouble of tomorrow for today. So on top of today’s challenges, we can start to experience tomorrow’s challenges before they even get here.

And we have a God who provides what we need for today. And then when tomorrow’s challenges come, he will provide what you need for those challenges tomorrow. You see the challenge? You see the issue? We start to experience tomorrow’s trouble when we have today’s provision. But why do we do that? We have this tendency not to trust God. We start thinking about what we can maybe do to fix it or I don’t know, we’re so worried, we just think so much about all the problems might come with it that we have this tendency to take our eyes off of the God who does provide and the way that he provides.

Thankfully, whenever we realize that we’ve done that, we can always go back to the cross and see his ultimate provision that Jesus lived that life we were meant to live, laid it down, died for us on a cross, and he rose again to set us right with God. He’s provided new life with God for you. The Holy Spirit has provided you the gift of faith. The ultimate provision is yours: eternity with him. And if that ultimate provision is yours for eternity, you can trust that he will provide what you need for today. And then tomorrow he will provide what you need for tomorrow.

So why experience tomorrow’s trouble with today’s provision? Tomorrow he will give you tomorrow’s provision. Today, face today. And trust that he is with you today.