Matthew 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
When you read Jesus’ words in Matthew 6, one that keeps cropping up is the word “thought,” as in “take no thought for your life.”It is interesting that there is a connection in our language between the ideas of thought and thinking and care and worry. Now if you didn’t care about anything, you wouldn’t worry about anything, but you wouldn’t be worth anything either. So, we need to care without being full of care, and we need to think without being overrun by our thoughts.
That is why Jesus says in Matthew 6:34, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” In short, never plan ahead without praying ahead. The one thing that both planning and praying have in common is the future. Any time you plan, it is for the future. Any time you pray it is about the future. You are not praying about the past because you are not asking God to roll back the hands of time.
So, both planning and prayer are important, but I would never plan ahead without praying ahead. There are three reasons for this. First, God knows. We don’t always know. In fact, we rarely know what is ahead. So, I can plan ahead all I want for all kinds of contingencies, but that doesn’t mean I know what is going to happen. In contrast, verse 8 says, “Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before you ask him.” Again in verse 32 He says, “For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” God knows and we don’t. So, plan ahead, but don’t be so full of thought and care that you worry. Never plan ahead without praying ahead.
Second, God owns. Verse 32 says, “For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all of these things.” Earlier He teaches us to pray. He says that we are to pray, “Thy will be done… give us…forgive us…lead us…deliver us.” So, “our Father” means that we own God in the sense that we belong to Him, and “Father” means that He owns us. God owns. When we are planning ahead, we ought to be praying ahead because I own nothing and God owns everything. If God cares about the birds and the lilies, He certainly cares about you and me.
Third, God can. If I knew what was ahead, I would not always be up to the task, but God always is. It almost sounds ominous in verse 34 when it says, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” But, it is not. You already know you have evil or bad things, plans that don’t work, every day. That is knowable. What we need to be reminded of is that it is sufficient unto the day.
The other thing that is sufficient is God. God’s grace is sufficient. No future need is greater than God. No matter the size of your problem you can only take things twenty-four hours at a time. So, plan ahead, but don’t be overcome with your own thoughts and cares. We are not to worry; we are to pray. So, never plan ahead without praying ahead because God always knows, God always owns, and God always can.