The acceptable burden

Read Matthew 6:34

34 So don’t worry about tomorrow,for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (NLT)

As the old saying goes,life wasn’t meant to be easy. Not even for a follower of Jesus. But life was not meant to be unnecessarily hard either. One way we can make it harder for ourselves is by loading ourselves up with the concerns of the future. It seems God gives us the resources to handle today,but when we insist on adding the affairs of tomorrow onto our shoulders,those resources are lacking. The load is too much.

The principle is clear enough,but we can also misunderstand it. We do need to think about our future,make plans,anticipate issues. We cannot literally just live in the present. So we are to discern the difference between proper reflection on the future and worry about the future. One is an acceptable burden,the other is unacceptable.

Perhaps the key differences are prayer and proportion. When I consider the future,I do so in a spirit of prayer,entrusting it to God believing that when the future becomes the present I will be able to deal with it. And when I consider the future,I do not become overwhelmed by it and endlessly fantasise about all sorts of possible outcomes. I discipline my thinking so I don’t get locked into anxiety about that future and consequent neglect of the present.

After all,the future has no existence yet. It is not real. God meets us in our present reality not in our speculative future.

Blessings
David Reay