Today

Today

Give us today the food we need. Matthew 6:11

A YOUNG MAN SPENT YEARS praying for his future—his life’s work, his potential mate, the children he didn’t yet have, the places where God wanted him to live, and so on—with his eyes always set on the distant horizon. In fact, this young man did more than pray. He worried. He focused so obsessively on the future that he missed many of the opportunities God had given him in the present. God graciously met most of his immediate needs anyway, but this man missed out on the pleasure of asking and receiving daily requests. One day he looked back and realized he had never actually enjoyed the moment. He was always living in a time that hadn’t come yet, and therefore never really living.

That story describes no one in particular but many people in general. Most of us can relate to it to some degree. We look back at the past in regret, we look to the future with anxiety, and we miss out on what God is doing in the here and now. If we noticed, we would be grateful for how he is providing and blessing our daily existence with his kindness. But we become so preoccupied with future needs that we can’t enjoy today’s provisions. We miss the God of today.

God gave his people training in the daily bread principle early on by feeding them manna in the wilderness and forbidding them from gathering extra to be eaten as leftovers the next day. In the prayer he taught his disciples, he reminded them of that truth—that tomorrow has enough worries of its own and our real focus is today—right now—with the needs and opportunities around us. We look at tomorrow’s problems and wonder if we will have faith for them, while God looks at today and says we have all the faith we need. When the time comes for tomorrow’s faith, we’ll have it. But for now, we are to trust him for the needs of the day.

Feel free to plan for tomorrow, but focus on today. Live with today’s faith for today’s needs. God is focused on your now because that’s where you are. And that’s your only opportunity to experience him today.

He that fears not the future may enjoy the present.