On Thursdays, I think about the fourth statement of the Lord's prayer: Give us today our daily bread. Jesus taught us to ask God for what we need for today only, not for what we need in the future. In the same sermon, Jesus explicitly said: Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
On the fourth day of creation, God creates the "today" that we are supposed to live in: And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.”
So God created this time period called "today" and asks us to focus on it - and that's enough.
The writer of Hebrews states: See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. Worrying about the future only leads me down the wrong path (sin) and I end up missing the greatness that God is offering me today.
Paul wrote: In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. There are things that must be done today to stay on the right path.
Today is this little slice of eternity we get to experience now. At the renewal of all things, God takes away the sun and moon and makes it a continuous "today" - see the end of of the book of Revelation for the story. I don't understand how this works, but it makes some sense to me.
It's hard for me to only focus on today. It's easy for me to get eaten up with worry about what might come and avoid what must be done. In my experience, this has only derailed me from living the way I want to. This isn't only a "Christian" idea - it permeates humanity. Some examples:
- You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this. - Henry David Thoreau
- Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. - Buddha
- Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present. - Marcus Aurelius Antonin
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