“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34, NIV)
Why worry about tomorrow? It’s out of your control. In fact, it’s out of everyone’s control except God’s.
Nevertheless we worry about tomorrow because we think we have control. We raise our kids, go to work, invest our money, buy houses, start companies, retire, move, do all those things because we want to. And, as can happen with anything, after we’ve done anything long enough or watched other people do the same things, we start to think it’s in our hands—we’re the masters of it. The problem is, biblically speaking, we’re not.
In Matthew 6 of the “Sermon on the Mount” Jesus is slowly building to a point about worry. He starts by telling those listening not to store up treasure on earth, but in heaven. Next, he tells them that what they “look at”—dream about, meditate on, or actually look at—is important because those things can become part of us. If our eyes are healthy our whole body will be full of light. But, if they’re sick, then we’ll be in darkness. And, not just in darkness, but the darkness will be in us. Lastly, Jesus tells them they have to choose between God and money because they (and we) can’t serve them both.
Store up treasure in heaven.
Have eyes full of light.
Serve God.
“Therefore,” Jesus then says, “do not worry about you life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.”
Why not?
Because life is more than food, and drink, and clothing. Birds, after all, don’t worry about their food, and God feeds them. Flowers don’t worry about how they look and God clothes them greater even than Solomon. And, if God is going to feed the birds and clothe the grass of the field, then why in the world would he not care for you—his pinnacle of creation. You are created in God’s image. He created mankind and put him in charge of the world to manage it. He did something for you that he hasn’t done for anything else in all creation—become like you, to die for you.
And, this is not because you and I are so worthy. To think that God cares for us so much because we are so worthy to be cared for is to misunderstand the story from the very beginning. God cares for us so much because he loves us. And, again so we don’t misunderstand, he doesn’t love us because we’re lovely. He loves us because he chooses to love us. God sets his love on us because he wants to. His love is poured out on us, his images who rebelled and threw all of creation into a fallen state. And still this God—only because of his choice to love us—stepped down and took upon himself his now fallen creation.
So, why shouldn’t you and I worry about tomorrow? Because tomorrow will worry about itself. You and are not in control, so should we try and act like it?
God is God and we are not.
God is God and he is in control. Therefore, do what needs to be done today and let tomorrow wait until tomorrow.