A wise pastor once said that the weight of each day is enough of a burden for any person; but if you add tomorrow’s burden to today, it becomes a crushing weight that could drown anyone.
Jesus said, "Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
It’s true with the stresses of work and family, and it’s true in dealing with our brokenness and sin. Too often we think we have to get ourselves together and amend our ways and live right for the rest of our lives. But then we remember our past struggles and look at the long road ahead, and we are sunk before the day is over. None of us can see that far ahead. None of us should attempt to carry the burden of many years of “living right” today. All we have to do is get through the only day we have – today.
I have a tendency to get too far ahead of myself in work and then begin to panic about all that has to be done in the next six months. I’m not as bad as I once was – at one time I gave myself mini panic attacks by thinking too far ahead. My wife had a mantra that she would repeat whenever she saw me going down that road again: “Stay in the present.”
There was an old clock maker in the Netherlands that made fabulous time-pieces. After putting the finishing touches on a beautiful new clock, he wound it up and put in on the shelf with the other clocks and went home for the evening.
The new little clock started thinking. “I have to tick sixty times every minute and then do that sixty times every hour. I have to keep ticking for twenty-four hours each day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, for who knows how many years…!” He was starting to panic. “That’s over thirty-one million ticks every year!” He got himself so wound up (so to speak) that he simply shut down. His little ticker couldn’t handle it.
Listening to all the fuss coming from the newcomer was a wise old grandfather clock that had been in the store for years. He leaned toward the little clock and said, “You don’t have to tick all those ticks right now. You just have to tick the next one. That’s all you have to worry about.”
And so it is with us. We just have to stay in the present and live today. Do you struggle with some sin or addiction that you keep falling into again and again and again? Do you keep promising to put an end to it and do right from here on out, only to fail again? Well, perhaps you are getting ahead of yourself. Don’t worry about the rest of your life. Just get through today. Then tomorrow you can get through tomorrow.
One day at a time. It’s how we overcome sin. It’s how we walk with the Lord.
God promises grace for today, and His grace is always enough.