One Day at a Time

by Jeff Schreve, from Runaway Emotions

No matter how many days God gives us, He gives them to us one day at a time. So when you think about it...today is all we have.

That may sound like a cliché, but it’s one of the most basic principles in all of life. Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow may never come. All you really have is today.

How do you know what is going to happen tomorrow? the apostle James asked. For the length of your lives is as uncertain as the morning fog — now you see it; soon it is gone. — James 4:14 TLB

In the Lord’s model prayer that He gave us — the one we call “the Lord’s Prayer” — He tells us that we are to pray,

Give us this day our daily bread. — Matthew 6:11

Not tomorrow’s bread or next week’s bread. God is a daily provider who provides for our needs today.

It was the same way in the Old Testament with the manna He provided for the children of Israel in the wilderness. It was called “the bread of angels,” and it was a sweet, sustaining food that was easy to gather and loaded with all the necessary vitamins and minerals. Through Moses, God instructed them to gather it every morning. He further warned them not to attempt to hoard it or store it overnight in any way. If they did, the stored manna would breed worms. They were to gather only as much as they would use on any given day.

As you might imagine, some of the people paid no attention to that restriction, and tried to store it away “for a rainy day.” Doubtless, they said to themselves, “Okay, I’ll gather Monday’s food — but maybe I should get enough for Tuesday and Wednesday, too. After all, what if God doesn’t show up with manna tomorrow?

When it comes to food and survival, you can never be too careful.” (Yes, but you can be too faithless.)

Lo and behold, when the disobedient Israelites looked at their stored manna on Tuesday, it was horrible, rotten, and full of worms... just like God had said it would be.

What is the lesson here? God is a daily provider. He provides for Monday’s needs on Monday, and Tuesday’s needs on Tuesday. We are to trust Him one day at a time and not become anxious over what we may require tomorrow. He will be there tomorrow, too, with more than enough grace to help you in your time of need. But He does not provide tomorrow’s grace today. He only gives grace for today’s issues.

One day, when my middle daughter, Amy, was in the third grade, she forgot her lunch. She called me at 9:00 a.m. to tell me to bring her lunch. I said, “No problem. I’m on it. When is your lunch period?” She told me noon, and I was good to go.

I arrived at her school at 11:55, lunch in hand, and I was seated in the cafeteria, waiting for her to come in with her class. When she arrived, she was visibly upset. I said, “Amy, what’s wrong?” She replied, “Dad, I thought you were going to bring me my lunch. I have been worried all morning because you did not come even though I called you.”

“Hmmm,” I said. “When is your lunch period?”

“Twelve o’clock,” she responded.

“And what time is it now?”

“It’s twelve o’clock.”

“Okay, here’s your lunch.” And I handed over the lunch bag.

She looked at me with bewilderment but realized she had been worrying needlessly. Her dad came through just like he promised, at just the right time.

Don’t we tend to be a lot like Amy? We ask God for things we need... and then freak out with worry because it is 10:00 a.m. and He hasn’t delivered our lunch yet. But God’s response is simply, “I haven’t delivered it yet because you don’t need it yet. Trust Me and quit worrying! Your lunch will be there when the clock strikes twelve, because that is when you need it.”

Never forget, God is a daily, on-time provider.

Do you feel like Amy right now worrying that God won’t provide what you need when you need it? It can be so challenging to lay down our sense of or desire to control and trust the Lord for what we need in His timing! How are you trusting Him today?