In Mathew 6:34 Jesus taught we should not “worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will take care of the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is evil.” In this verse, evil is the emotional toll it takes on us when we worry too much beyond the present; when we fail to trust God for our future. Worrying too much is also evil, meaning destructive, because we will be of little good to others because we are emotionally drained. We can even get mentally or physically sick because of worry and stress. Medical professionals have confirmed the toll that stress and worry has on us.
Taking it a day at a time doesn’t mean we should neglect to plan for tomorrow’s challenges and responsibilities or fail to do everything we can to relieve our problems with a look toward the future. It means we should not worry about tomorrow’s troubles and contingencies to the point that we have strangled the life out of everything remaining that is not part of the problem or challenge. If we do this too much we will fail to live well in the present. In the English language the word worry comes from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning to choke or strangle. Evidently they knew something about worry. Trust and prayer will help us to take it a day at a time. And worry less about what we can’t change and change what we can while trusting God.
JH