The old clock stood in the corner of the room busily ticking away the hours. It began to think and worry and said to itself: “I tick once every second. There are sixty seconds in a minute and sixty minutes in an hour. That means I have to tick 3,600 times every hour and 86,400 times every day. Then there’s tomorrow and the day after that; days and weeks and months lie ahead. In a year I will have to tick 31,536,000 times.”
The old clock became discouraged and as it added the burden of unborn days to the burden of the present moment of time, it began to run more and more slowly until it almost came to a complete stop. Then the clock had an encouraging thought. “After all, it’s only a tick at a time.” With that flash of insight the clock gathered strength and carried on with its allotted task – measuring the passing moments a tick at a time.
Matt 6:34 Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. ESV
In His sermon on the mount the Lord told us not to worry about tomorrow. We don’t know, tomorrow may not come. Before tomorrow we may be taken home. If tomorrow does come, God will still be in charge and He will arrange tomorrow’s affairs. The bottom line: we are not to add tomorrow’s cares to those of today.
Sufficient for the day is its own trouble [evil]. In the Greek the word “evil” encumbers not just the calamities and afflictions of our daily life, its roots point to the origins of these things … sin. As long as the Lord has a purpose in our continuing our journey here on earth we are going to face these difficulties. He does not promise that our tomorrow will not have problems. He promises that tomorrow, just like today, is in His hands. That doesn’t mean that He wants us to be careless or foolish and take no thought for tomorrow. He wants us to trust in Him and take no anxious thoughts about tomorrow, and that entails our Living One Day at a Time! Just like that old clock in the corner, we have our hands full of ticks for today. The Lord gives us 1440 minutes every day that He has allotted to His plan for our life. There aren’t any extra ticks to be fretted away on “what if’s.” Samuel Wilberforce captured that message in his hymn:
Lord, for tomorrow and its needs, I do not pray;
Keep me, O Lord, from stain of sin, Just for today.
After all, it’s only a tick at a time!