Stay In Today!

Stay In Today!                                                    August 16, 2026

We, as a society, are remarkably good at borrowing trouble from the future.  We lie awake solving problems that haven’t happened yet, rehearsing conversations that may never occur, and carrying the weight of next month on today’s shoulders.  It’s exhausting – and most of us know it, yet we keep doing it anyway.

“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, ESV).

This verse comes in one of the most remarkable passages Jesus taught – the section in the Sermon on the Mount where He points to birds and wildflowers as evidence that God provides.  And then He lands on this: don’t borrow tomorrow’s worry.

Jesus doesn’t pretend today has no trouble.  He acknowledges it plainly – sufficient for the day is its own trouble.  He’s not offering a life without difficulty.  He’s offering something more realistic and more useful: stay here.  Stay in today.

There’s a reason worry always pulls us forward in time.  Today is where God’s grace actually lives.  The manna God gave Israel in the wilderness came one day at a time – deliberately.  When they tried to hoard it for the next day, it spoiled.  God was teaching them something we need to learn: I will provide, but you have to show up for today to receive it.

Jesus teaches us to pray towards the beginning of this same chapter “give us this day our daily bread” – not our weekly bread, not our monthly bread.  Today’s bread.  Today’s grace.  Today’s strength.

That doesn’t mean we don’t plan.  It means we don’t worry.  Planning is wisdom.  Concern takes action.  Worry is just suffering in advance.

Whatever this week holds for you – whatever you’re dreading about tomorrow, or next month, or next year – the grace for that moment hasn’t been issued yet.  It will be there when you need it.  It always has been.

By Michael King