Commandment 26: God Holds Your Future
“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Mt. 6:34 NASB)
For the believer, tomorrow is not a day to fear or worry about. Since we have no control over what arises with the new sun, we also have no need to labor ourselves with worry or excessive planning.
Proverbs 27:1 say’s: “Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring.” (NASB) In fact. tomorrow is like darkness in many ways; darkness does not really exist, it is merely the absence of light. So also, tomorrow never comes, for when it arrives it is today. As the Scottish poet Robert Burns once wrote: “The best laid schemes of mice and men often go askew.”
Every day is a gift from God. We should awaken to the new day with expectation and excitement. We are in the hands of our benevolent and loving Creator who has displayed his handiwork for all to see. One need only look at the daytime sky to behold the wondrous glory and beauty of God; yet, a stormy day can strike suddenly and reveal the awesome and terrible power of our Creator. Who can deny the wonder of the night sky? And yet we can see only a minuscule portion of our own galaxy with the naked eye.
Trust is the operative word for those who will walk with God. Though He has given us his word as a guide and instruction manual for life in this world, still every day belongs to Him, and every breath we have is not to be taken for granted. To place one’s life in God’s hands is simple enough, but to leave it there in times of either trouble or great blessing is another thing all together.
Still, we are not to float wistfully along like the discarded petals of a dandelion blowing in the wind. We are to plan and work like those who have direction and goals, all the while realizing that the final outcome of our efforts is in the hands of God. This is not to be construed as hyper-Calvinism. It is just a voice of experience. Anyone who has a few years behind them soon learns that anything can happen at anytime and to anyone. As King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 9:11, “. .. time and chance happens to them all.”
The place of prayer is the seedbed for the days ahead. It is here where we make our request[s] known unto God. (Phil. 4:6) Our best hope for tomorrow rests in our most prayerful efforts of today. In fact, one might say for the believer, today is the outcome of yesterday’s prayers — or the lack of them.
How often do we find ourselves laboring away toward our goals without taking the time to pray and seek God? A sure path to worry and frustration is to head off into tomorrow without seeking God today. When this happens, we may even find ourselves trying to pass a little blame on to God for not watching out for us. Yet if we never asked for his input, we can’t hold Him responsible for the outcome.
In our modern world we tend to rush headlong into every day trying to get everything done that we feel needs to be accomplished. I myself know this feeling well and have to fight against my natural tendency towards busyness. When we take no thought for tomorrow, we often find ourselves having peace today. Tomorrow likes to steal away the pleasure of today. How often do we find ourselves spending much of today worrying or thinking about tomorrow? We should take heed to our Lord’s counsel to consider the lilies of the field.
Nature itself offers us a glimpse of the world of God. He created this world as a place of enjoyment and blessing. We would do well to heed the words of some of our Native American brothers and sisters who understand this better than most of us do. While it is true that God left us here with a purpose to pronounce the Kingdom message, He did not leave us in a barren landscape of desperation.
We have a beautiful world that shows us Who is really in control of things. While those in places of worldly power may think they have the upper hand, God is securely at the helm and their very breath itself is in his power.
We who know Him should find peace and confidence in this. Let us set aside our worries and replace them with rejoicing and thankfulness to our Heavenly Father. When you are thankful and happy, you are truly worshiping God and experiencing the blessing of his love.
In His Peace, Craig