Sufficient unto the day...

Sufficient unto the Day...

To one of my vintage, that title encourages the completion  ... ‘is the evil thereof’. 

It’s from the Sermon on the Mount preached by Jesus. Mostly we think of the so-called Beatitudes when we think of that body of teaching, but in fact it contains loads more than that, and one thing more is his argument against worry. 

Don’t worry, Jesus says, just trust in God. He gives the natural world all they need to be warm and fed, and he will look after you, too.  Sharp intake of breath. What about famine victims? What about people in our own country choosing to heat the room rather than eat, unable to afford both? 

I don’t have the answer. But I do have an observation gained over a few years of living. Worry doesn’t get you anywhere. All it does is mess up your digestion and keep your eyes open through the long hours of the night. And in the morning, you are no further forward, and perhaps have even slipped backwards, in that you can’t think well without proper rest. And you probably can’t see that sometimes, you – and I – may be the answer to feeding some of the poor.

I’ve just read Matthew chapters 5 to 7, which is the Sermon. Challenging. Challenging beyond my ability to succeed at it. Love my enemy? Don’t criticize others? I’ll be happy when I’m in mourning?

Ask, Jesus advises. Seek. Knock. There’s no way you can do this stuff on your own. You are – I am – totally dependent on God to do it in me, for me, through me. And if I can get to the point of admitting that, and asking, seeking, knocking, maybe, just maybe, I can let go of the worry.

Sufficient unto the day...or in today’s language, ‘each day has enough trouble of its own’. 

So I’m on my way out, expecting my loving heavenly Father to be with me through the day. Are you?