by Rose Murdock

"So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own.  Sufficient for each day is its own trouble." Matthew 6:34 The Amplified Bible

Jesus said not to worry about tomorrow.  Today is enough to deal with.  But He didn’t mean for us to worry about today either.  If you read the whole passage of scripture here from verse 24 on you’ll see that Jesus is saying not to worry at all, but rather to trust your Heavenly Father to provide.  He says to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and everything else will fall into place (verse 33).

How do we keep from worrying?  By living in the now.  By living in the moment you are in right now.  God is a now God.  Do you know that God is not governed by time?  Everything is now to God.  He is "I Am" not "I was or will be."  What matters is what you are doing, saying and believing right now.  What you are doing right now will determine the outcome of tomorrow.  If you want to continue the problems of today then all you have to do is keep worrying about them and keep magnifying the problem above everything else.  Keep talking about them, continue to fear and you will have more of the same tomorrow.  But if you want to change your situation for good then you’ve got to change your now.  Now you have to quit talking defeat.  Now you have to quit fearing and worrying and start receiving the Word of God into your heart.  Start now talking like God talks and thinking like God thinks.  When you do that today then tomorrow will change.

That’s the way God operates.  He doesn’t tell us to cheer up and be happy once all the problems are straightened out.  He tells us to rejoice and believe right in the middle of the problem.  Before things get better, before the answer comes.  When you still feel sick and depressed and broke or angry!  Rejoice now.  Believe now.  Instead of having fear and anxiety we’re to have faith, peace, love and joy.

"But how can I be happy when I can’t pay my bills?"  You do it by making a choice to do it.  By believing what Jesus said when He told you to do it.  And Jesus didn’t say that just because God doesn’t want to hear you complain about your problem!  He said that because that’s the key to getting your problems solved.  When we quit worrying and start thanking God and rejoicing then our answer can come.

"And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.  And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed." Acts 16:25-26

It doesn’t say the earthquake came and then they sang praises.  They prayed and sang praises now—while they were still bound in prison.  God was able to do a miracle because of their faith-filled atmosphere of praise and worship.  Most of us would want to wait until our deliverance came.  We’d wait until we were out of prison or out of whatever the situation is and then we’d praise God.  But the way to change tomorrow is to change your now today.

All we have is right now.  You can’t control tomorrow and you can’t control the past.  You can’t control other people.  But you can control what you do, what you say, and what you believe, right now.

"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

Don’t be anxious about anything but instead with prayer and thanksgiving let God know your requests.  That sounds like what Paul and Silas did in prison didn’t it?  They prayed and sang praises.  When we pray and give thanks what are we thanking God for?  We’re thanking Him for deliverance!  We’re thanking Him for answering our prayers!  Jesus said when you pray to believe you receive those things you’re praying for and you’ll have them (Mark 11:24).  So if you believe you receive when you pray then you’ll be thanking God when you pray won’t you?  If you believe that God has answered your prayer then the proper thing to do is to thank Him for it isn’t it?

And when we do all this the peace of God will keep our hearts and minds.  And not only that but the atmosphere is set for God to do the miraculous.  You can have the peace of God no matter what is going on around you.  How?  Through prayer and praise now instead of worry and anxiety.  Replace the worry and anxiety in your life with words of praise, worship and thanksgiving to God.

If you are in the middle of a tough situation right now then you can imagine what it would be like to have this problem solved.  Imagine your reaction.  Imagine you getting a smile on your face, a shout of praise in your mouth and maybe even a dance or jump for joy.  But all of that doesn’t affect you or your situation today.  That is only a good intention.  You may say, when God bails me out of this one then I will praise Him, then I will thank Him.  But faith says, "I will praise Him now because I believe God is a God of His Word and I know He will bring to pass that which He has spoken.  He has granted my request now and I will thank Him now.  He has delivered me from trouble now and I will rejoice and praise Him now just as if I could see it now, just as if I had the answer right here in front of me."

We may be governed by time but God is not.  Don’t worry about tomorrow.  Don’t be anxious and full of fear.  Trust in the love of your Heavenly Father and live in the moment, live in the now and your now will continue to get better and better!

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