A global pandemic, the worst cost of living crisis in decades, world conflict and wars … it’s a challenging time to be alive. For many people, this is the first time in their lives they have been forced to take life literally one day at a time – not by choice but because it’s all they can handle.
The fact is, we can’t fully plan for the future because we don’t know what the future will look like. We’re truly living day to day. But living day to day is not liberating for everyone. It can be very frustrating. We like the control of having a plan. We like knowing what to expect tomorrow and next week and hopefully next year even … and we certainly don’t like glancing at the calendar and thinking, “Who knows?”
When we listen to the teaching of Jesus, though, we find that He seems to speak directly to our context. Jesus offers very few guarantees about our future. He promises to be with us (Matthew 28:20). He promises to sanctify us (Philippians 1:6). Beyond that, though, we aren’t given very much detail.
Instead of a plan for tomorrow, we are given a promise for today: Ask God and He will provide us with “our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). In other words, God will provide today whatever we need for today.
What God teaches us during uncertain times is a truth we should cling to every day of our lives – that He gives strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. We may want more detail than that but usually Jesus won’t give it. But in Christ, we can look to the future, see Jesus there, and say, “That is enough.”
The last few years has shattered any illusion we had of control in our lives. But better to live in the light of truth than in a comfortable lie. The truth is this: When something is out of our control, we become desperate – a good kind of desperate, where we cry out to God for help.
We are desperate for God to move, to comfort, to guide, to provide today. Praise God that He specializes in caring for the desperate and the needy!
While we need to pause and allow ourselves moments to grapple with the sorrow of everything that may be going wrong, we also must thank God for the ways He is providing for us even now. Whether sick or healthy, poor or rich, frightened or confident, in Christ, each of us has today everything we need for today.
Jesus is enough! Jesus is always enough.