In Matthew 6 it says “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,” and we all know that’s like fancy King James speak for what you have going on today is enough, right? You don’t need to let the past come in or the future and steal the present today, steal what you have this moment, right now. We heard this morning that the past and the future are constants, right? The variable that we have to work with is right now, this moment.
So, I want to share with you guys two examples from my life where I’ve not necessarily been the best at that every time. I grew up riding and competing horses in jumping competitions and one year in high school I qualified for some finals for the division that I competed in and I was the only student from my barn that year to do that and so it was a big deal because I was the only one that my trainer was taking to that show. So, I go in and at the second jump I completely screw it up. Like, I mean, I didn’t fall off, but I might as well have, you know? So, I didn’t make it to the second round that day, I didn’t place and I was so disappointed because I felt like all my hard work, you know, had just been a waste and that I had let people down too. And I held on to that, like, one mistake for way too long. And even like, today, if I’m competing a horse if I let that memory come in my head, that makes me completely ineffective, right? Because I’m letting the past mistake effect who I am in the moment. And the Word says, “Sufficient unto the day,” right?
So, the past is over and gone, you know we don’t have to hold on to that. And in the same way, we don’t want to let future worries come in and steal today from us, right? Like, I’m 30, I want to get married and have a family someday. And I swear 99.9% of all the girls I went to high school with have already done that. And no, I went to a small Christian high school so that stat is actually pretty accurate. Not kidding. But if I dwell on what other people have or what I don’t have instead of being thankful for the awesome believers that I live with and the people I get to fellowship with, you know, being ungrateful or unthankful can let that desire turn into an insecurity and a worry and a doubt and a fear. And you know, we don’t have time to worry about the future because the return of Christ could happen tonight or tomorrow morning and then the things of this life aren’t relevant anymore, right?
So, we want to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and know that Jesus Christ already accomplished everything that we need in this life. You know we’re living in the Grace Administration which is literally a grace period. God’s waited 2000 years so that we could have today. So, if we ruin that by worrying over something that may or may not happen, you know we can waste how awesome right now is.
I want to go back to my horse story for a second. So, a few years later in college, I qualified for the same competition, and once again, I was the only student that year to do so. So, that time, my trainer that I normally rode with didn’t go with me so, I went with a new trainer on a borrowed horse. So circumstantially nothing was set up for me to be successful, right? But I will tell you that that trainer that I was riding with is the one that spoke the Word to me so now I’m standing here talking to you guys tonight.
That night we were warming up, going over jumps in the warm up arena and I made the exact same mistake that I had back in high school. Just getting ahead and jumping out of poor timing. And in that moment, I had a choice to make, if I was going to let that past fear of failure creep in and steal this moment from me or if I was going to let the peace of God rule in spite of all the pressure that I felt on that one round of competition.
So, in that moment, I had to choose to press towards the mark and ride and be myself rather than let worry creep in and take that from me. And you know what? I won. And that year I had accumulated the most points in my division accumulatively across all the competitions. And why does that matter? Only because it’s a reminder that God’s awesome. And He wants to meet the desires of our heart. That was a desire of my heart and so God worked it out for me to be able to accomplish that. And as I took each jump as it came up, I was successful, as I was in the moment and peaceful and let God work in me. And now looking back on it I remember that God was with me then even more then than I realized at the time. God bless you.
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