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“Give us this day………” Matthew 6:11
“Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:34
Do you have enough money
set aside for retirement? There’s a storm coming in five days. Who will win the debate that is coming in two days? I’m worried about who is going to be the next President. Will the stock I purchased today go up or down? I better get the job I want because I’m going to college and working hard on my degree. Are we leaving a better tomorrow for our children?
We (or at least I) think a lot about the future. We make detailed plans about what we are going to do and/or even sometimes say, in the future. Sometimes the future we’re considering is a day from now; sometimes, the future we’re planning for is decades from now. We often predicate our actions today based on a desired future outcome. Children now a days are being told to pick the sport that they want to excel in during high school or college and start to train and strive for when they are as young as 10 years old!
So is the gist of this that I’m anti-plan? Am I inferring that to think about tomorrow is some sort of sin? Hardly. Jesus is in the midst of giving some of His most important teachings about how we’re to live. In the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew is recording Jesus’ sermon on the mount. Jesus has given the blessed beatitudes, taught about salt and light, anger, giving, lust and many more things. Then He comes to prayer and shortly after that, worry. So it is that Jesus Christ’s words reach out across the ages and come directly to us; to our hearts. What His teachings also tell us today, is that the fundamental struggle that people have, has not and probably will not change over time. They are as true today, as they were then and will be later.
My intention in this post is to point out how our fixation on time periods, like yesterday and especially tomorrow, are so impactful, often quite negatively so on the reality of today and what Our Heavenly Father is attempting to show us, bless us with, protect us from in the here and now. For example, today I eat less, I forsake a desert and I do some extra exercising with the specific expectation that I will see a result tomorrow or the next day. I even keep this up for a week or so, yet day after day, I see the exact same number on the scale after a week or two. Because my expectation is not met, because my desire goes unfulfilled, I make judgement about the fairness of this world, I become fearful that the scale will never move. What is happening today becomes some meaningless exercise in futility because my expectation, days ago of what the future tomorrow should be, doesn’t match the today I am actually experiencing. In the above example, there would be some who would argue that the problem is not that I had an expectation but that my expectation was not accurate or reasonable. And while I would grant a certain human logic to their argument for that example only, it seems to me that Jesus is warning us about judging the result of today versus our expectation for today in the first place; especially when it causes us fear and worry.
Yes Jesus did think about the future. Yes Jesus did plan. He told His disciples that He would die and rise again. He told His disciples of His plan to go to Jerusalem to observe the Passover. One must remember however, in a miracle to great to comprehend; Jesus Christ was God on earth and He knew the future. We do not.
In writing about this it is not to say I don’t struggle with it. I’ve written two books (if you’re thinking “Oh this whole post is just a sly way of marketing his books, please trust and understand that’s not the case 🙂 ). I would like them to be a commercial success, although that is not my main reason for writing them. So I do things. I go to book events, I use social media, I have a website, I on and on… Yet the books are not a commercial success, perhaps yet. So am I to worry about them, be scared that nothing will come of them? Being Christian themed, should I go back and change them to have a more worldly audience? Whose will be done?
Dear Sisters and Brothers, it sure seems of course, Jesus had it right that he taught about prayer first and then worry. In our prayer to our Heavenly Father, it certainly appears that today and primarily today is the time frame that matters. Today our Father is in Heaven and I want His will to be done. Today I have needs that require fulfillment. Today I will need His forgiveness as well as to forgive others. Today I will need to be turned away from temptation and delivered from evil. Today Our Heavenly Father, who loves us, who created us, will see to us and our blessing.
Planning in and of itself is not a sin. Plan to pray everyday. Plan to love everyday. Plan to ask Our Heavenly Father for things every day. Even pray about tomorrow. Yet know that tomorrow belongs to Our Heavenly Father who is already there. The basic truth is, we can only ever be in today. No matter how much we want to change something that has already happened; we can’t be there to do it. No matter how much we believe that something should happen in the future, we can not go there to insure it happens. You and I will always be only in today. So remember Who it is that created today. Let us strive to have our primary focus be today; His love that He is showering upon us today; His strength that He is pouring out upon us today; His mercy that He is forgiving us with today; His blessings that He has in store for us today. I don’t know about you, but that is a day I want to be in.
Our Most Gracious Heavenly Father, we humbly admit that we can be in only one day, that is today; but that You created and are thus in control of all days. Help us Most Merciful Father to focus on today and ways that we might abide in Your Son Jesus Christ to have this day be a blessing for us and that we might bless others. Forgive us when we let worries of the future and regrets of the past distract us from what You would have us focus on today. That in focusing on You this day and all of our “todays” we would live lives of praise to Your Most Holy Name. In the Name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen
“And God said to Moses ‘I AM WHO I AM'”…………. Exodus 3:14
“I am the resurrection and the life.” John 11:25
We change. Depending on our stage in life, physically we may be adding cells leading to growth in our systems like skeletal, muscular, etc. In other cases we are losing cells (except in my case the cells around my middle…heavy sigh) faster than we are gaining them. We may change through our experiences, adding to our wisdom or perhaps our cynicism depending on our point of view. Our actions may change based on our access to resources to acquire things, to move and see things, to share things. In so many ways; ways we want to, ways we don’t want to, ways we hope to, ways we fear, we change.
Because we change, our outlook is linear. We think and act in terms of time. We analyze and we plan. As we look at today, we say today is largely based on what has happened prior to today to bring me here as well as a significant part of today should be spent planning to impact the “today” which will come tomorrow. If we are not careful, the amount of time we focus today, in analyzing the previous todays, and the amount of time we focus today, on what the next day’s “today” should be like, will leave us precious little today to actually experience today (Sorry if you need to read that again and if it still makes no sense, write it off to a lack of my second cup of coffee).
So first, I am not stating that there is no value in contemplating the past or thinking about, even planning for the future. I believe repentance demands that we look at our past actions to understand the nature and impact of our specific sins; thus allowing us to express, both the sorrow in our confession and desire to change. In fulfilling God’s plan, Solomon had to plan how to complete the temple, Paul had plans to go to Rome, Jesus Christ planned to go to Jerusalem.
Yet here is the mystery, at least for me. God, and in God I mean God the Father, God the Son, Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit, exist in a realm where time, may not exist at all or if it does, is completely irrelevant. In God’s first direct encounter with Moses; He states that He is the God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Jesus Christ would later use this quote to show the Sadducees where they were wrong in saying there was no resurrection. In naming those historical names He stated them in the present tense. It also seems to me that in stating it in that way, He is also saying, I AM the same God. It seems He was telling Moses; during a time, you would call the past, I AM, the exact same Perfect I AM that is before you today. Jesus Christ stands before Mary, Martha, His disciples and others gathered at Lazarus’s tomb. Jesus tells them that Lazarus will rise. Martha believes Jesus, but she is thinking linearly. She says: “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (italics added). Jesus does not mean it linearly. “I AM the resurrection and the life.”, Jesus responds (bold and italics added). To punctuate his statement; He raises Lazarus right then and there.
Proverbs and Jesus Christ teach us, that while it is not a sin to plan, to be careful about how much worry and focus we put on our own plans. Are we seeking in our plans and more importantly today; living to seek first the Kingdom of God. It is often eloquently stated in the Psalms and Jesus teaches as well, not to dwell, especially concerning the pain and sinfulness of past. For in believing in Him and following Him, today we are new and our past is forgiven and forgotten.
I certainly can’t grasp, let alone explain the mystery of I AM. The ability to be eternally present, at every point in history, at exactly the same time (even words are inadequate to describe the concept…at least for me). The power IS that God is with me; ALWAYS. Knowing that I am in a linear existence; His plans are set up that way. There are people I am supposed to meet, places I will be and so many other things I can’t even begin to think about. But and this is the important But, He knows, because He has been there. For Him, what is now and what will be is a simultaneous existence. And the Promise is the I AM. I AM will never forsake you. I AM will never stop loving you. I AM is my resurrection; TODAY.
The world tells us we are a product of our past and our destiny is in the future. The world wants to elevate the importance of me to the pinnacle, saying if I will study my past to learn from it and focus on planning my future, I will truly be successful. Our Heavenly Father asks; Believe that I AM. Yesterday, today and tomorrow, I AM the same I AM. I Am the perfect Creator, I AM the perfect Sustainer, I AM the only Resurrection. I AM Love.
Our Most Gracious and Heavenly Father. As I pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…..”, help me to see the “as it is in heaven” is eternal. Guide me to an existence where I live, knowing that you are “I AM” even if I can’t understand it. Lead me from the temptation, Heavenly Father, to stray from Your, I AM, to my own, I was and I will be. Give me a humble spirit, that seeks to obey and constantly praises the relationship of I AM. And thank you Most Gracious Heavenly Father, that through Your Mercy, Grace and Love, You have decided to be my I AM. In the name of Jesus Christ I/we pray.
Amen
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