For many people, this is the first time in our lives we have been forced to take life literally one day at a time—not by choice but because it’s all we can handle. We can’t plan for the future because we don’t know what new restrictions or changes will happen. We’re truly living day to day.
But living day to day is not liberating for everyone. In fact, it can be very frustrating. We like the control of having a plan. We like knowing what to expect tomorrow and next week. And we certainly do not like glancing at the calendar and thinking, “Who even knows?”
When we listen to the teaching of Jesus, though, we find that he seems to speak directly to our context. Jesus offers very few guarantees about our future. He promises to be with us (Matthew 28:20). He promises to sanctify us (Philippians 1:6). Beyond that, though, we aren’t given very much detail.
Instead of a plan for tomorrow, we are given a promise for today: Ask God and he will provide us with “our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). In other words, God will provide today whatever we need for today.
What God is teaching us during these uncertain times is a truth we should cling to every day of our lives—that he gives strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. We may want more detail than that. Jesus won’t give it. But in Christ, we can look to the future, see Jesus there, and say, “That is enough.”
This experience has shattered any illusion we had of control in our lives. But better to live in the light of truth than in a comfortable lie. The truth is this: When something is out of our control, we become desperate—a good kind of desperate, where we cry out to God for help.
We are desperate for God to move, to comfort, to guide, to provide today. Praise God that he specializes in caring for the desperate and needy!
While we need to pause and allow ourselves moments to grapple with the sorrow of everything that is going wrong, we also must thank God for the ways he is providing for us even now. Whether sick or healthy, poor or rich, frightened or confident, in Christ, each of us has today everything we need for today.
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