When I was young, Daddy would share the quote, “Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but gets you nowhere” (Erma Bombeck).

Jesus said it this way: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34 NKJV).

My friend Joyce Freeman shared her paraphrase of this verse with me last week when she told me she had a word from the Lord telling her to stay in today. Stay in today is a grab-and-carry kind of phrase. She shared her word from the Lord with me because something I said in our conversation caused her to believe I needed to stay in today, too! I thought you might like a reminder, too.

If it sounds impossible, we can agree with Joyce that it is a discipline!

Plan without Worry

It’s not that we don’t plan for tomorrow while staying in today, but we just don’t worry about tomorrow. There’s the balance: plan without worry, leaving the outcome with the Lord, trusting the contents of our tomorrows to Him, knowing His hands are capable and trustworthy hands. It is a matter of trust, which affects our mental and emotional well-being.

The writer of Hebrews told us how to plan for tomorrow: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that’” (James 4:13-15). We plan for tomorrow by following the Lord’s will and trusting Him to keep His promises for our tomorrows.

I know these verses are about money issues, but the principle applies to us. In the lives of people who deeply love prodigals, our worry can be about what decision they will make tomorrow, what will happen tomorrow, what new thing will we face tomorrow, what the outcome of their current situation will be, and when will the tomorrow come when they finally give their hearts back to God.

Still, whether it’s about money situations or situations with our prodigals, it’s all about trusting our Savior, our Provider, and the Author and Finisher of faith.

There are moments we can use reminders from God’s Word. Here are a few:

• “The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1).
• “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance” (Psalm 42:5, emphasis added).
• “The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him” (Psalm 28:7, emphasis added).

We can trust the Lord with our tomorrows, because He has been Lord of our todays. The todays may have been hard, but He has been with us in every step of every one of our todays. He’s not left us, and He’s not left us hopeless. He’s brought us through every single time!

The day after Joyce shared her thought about staying in today, my friend Lisa Curtis wrote me about her efforts to stop worrying and to trust for today: “I am going to have to stop worrying and focus on the manna lesson. [The children of Israel] were told that manna would be provided for each day, but not to save for tomorrow (except for on Saturday, but that’s for another reason as we know). They were to trust that He would provide and meet their needs for tomorrow when tomorrow came. I am trying very hard to work on that. Let it unfold and trust that The Lord will be with us without worrying so much.”

Those are wise words. The phrase “the manna lesson” is also a grab-and-carry kind of phrase.

If you’re counting, that is twice in two days this concept came across my desk, something you’ve heard me say if you’ve followed the ministry for any length of time or read my book Trust God As. When the Lord brings something across my desk once, I try to pay attention, but my notice stands at full attention when it comes across my desk twice or more. It means this is a lesson for my life. I thought it might also be a grab-and-go for you, too.

So, when we need comfort, we remember “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), and when we need a prayer to pray today that can result in no worries about our tomorrows, why not Psalm 31:1? It says, “In You, O Lord, I put my trust; Let me never be ashamed; Deliver me in Your righteousness.” Of course, the word never encompasses all our tomorrows!

Amen!