One of the ongoing issues for Christians is worry about the future. We are currently in the very early stages of a presidential election. We constantly hear people worrying about how it is all going. Are we getting the right candidates? Which one can win? Who did best in the debates? Etc. Etc. Etc.
The key to all these questions is that they are all about the future. And, they are all about a future we cannot control. This is the whole point of Christ's command about worry. "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matthew 6:34. Spending today worrying about tomorrow is a waste of today. Spending an hour reading articles about all the GOP candidates and their possible wins or losses is a wasted hour. Spending the same hour doing something for today is a much better hour.
There are things we have to consider. We have to prepare for things that we have to do. We have to prepare for our work and paying our bills and such things, but that is not what we do. We worry about and focus on things so far ahead of us that nothing we do can make a difference.
James warns us as well, but in a slightly different way.
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a
town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know
what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for
a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will
live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
James 4:13-16. You do not know what tomorrow will bring. Think about this. You do not know what tomorrow will bring. You cannot plan or make decisions about tomorrow as if God were not real. You cannot worry about the candidates or their election chances because you do not know anything. The election is more than 13 months away. Nothing you do today will make any difference in that election.
Worry is foolishness. Worry is sin. Spending your day worried about a day more than a year from now is a waste of your day, which could have been invested in loving your God and your neighbor.
The key to all these questions is that they are all about the future. And, they are all about a future we cannot control. This is the whole point of Christ's command about worry. "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matthew 6:34. Spending today worrying about tomorrow is a waste of today. Spending an hour reading articles about all the GOP candidates and their possible wins or losses is a wasted hour. Spending the same hour doing something for today is a much better hour.
There are things we have to consider. We have to prepare for things that we have to do. We have to prepare for our work and paying our bills and such things, but that is not what we do. We worry about and focus on things so far ahead of us that nothing we do can make a difference.
James warns us as well, but in a slightly different way.
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a
town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know
what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for
a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will
live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
James 4:13-16. You do not know what tomorrow will bring. Think about this. You do not know what tomorrow will bring. You cannot plan or make decisions about tomorrow as if God were not real. You cannot worry about the candidates or their election chances because you do not know anything. The election is more than 13 months away. Nothing you do today will make any difference in that election.
Worry is foolishness. Worry is sin. Spending your day worried about a day more than a year from now is a waste of your day, which could have been invested in loving your God and your neighbor.