Week 23—Wednesday Philippians 4:11-13
Philippians 4:11-13
“LIVE IN DAY-TIGHT COMPARTMENTS”
Jesus puts in another “therefore” in his teaching about anxiety: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day” (Matt. 6:34). Here, he closes the gap between today and yesterday and today and tomorrow. Concentrate on today, he says. Be a today person, not a yesterday person, nor a tomorrow person. Live today. For if you try to live three ways at once—living in worry over the mistakes of yesterday, living tensely about tomorrow, and hence living ineffectively today—you will not be Facing-Both-Ways, but Facing-Three-Ways, and you will be a blur.
If you allow the anxieties of yesterday, and the anxieties of tomorrow, plus the anxieties of today, to gang upon you, it will break the strongest spirit. Live today today. Dr. Osler, the famous surgeon of Johns Hopkins, urged us to “live in day-tight compartments”—shutting off yesterday and shutting off tomorrow and living today today. Then you will deal with things once—today. But if you don’t do this, you meet everything three times—yesterday, tomorrow, and today. So you are exhausted by overattention to your problems. Meet them once—today—settle them, and then dismiss them and go on to the next thing today.
Anxiety is the advance interest you pay on tomorrow’s troubles. And some people go bankrupt paying interest on troubles that never come. Some do come, and if you meet them today, one by one, by the grace and power of God you can conquer and solve them. Someone asked me how I manage to keep fresh day by day. I replied, “I clip off my engagements like coupons. After I’ve given an address, or have made a decision, I dismiss it. I do my best and leave the rest.” Simple? Very, but effective. Useless regret over the past and useless anxiety over tomorrow makes a useless person.
O Jesus, your forgiveness covers my mistakes and sins of yesterday. Your grace will be sufficient for tomorrow; your power is available for today. So I go forth with you knowing that all I need for today is adequate. Help me to draw heavily on you, today. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Anxiety is a tri-headed parasite, eating into yesterday and tomorrow and making me ineffective today.