Back in college, one of my professor’s used to precede a quiz, test, or sometimes the last class before the weekend with the phrase, “sufficient class…sufficient!†It took us a month or so to figure out what he was talking about and we kind of thought he rather enjoyed being vague anyway.
All that good old Prof. Cooper was doing was quoting Jesus (Matt. 5-6) from the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, and the Lord’s Prayer (the Lord’s instruction to the Disciples on how to pray). The Lord said,
“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.†(KJV, see also NET Matt. 6:34 “So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.â€)
Over the years, what he said in those classes comes back to me much more than it did when I was back in college. Then, I was only really worried about doing well on a quiz, a test, or knowing that I’d be working on exegesis papers all weekend and had to get them turned in the first of the following week. Today, it’s a completely different story. Life, health, family, work, the challenge of priorities, deadlines, and you name it all challenge me to take my worries to the Lord, but just deal with it one day at a time. If the Lord tells me “sufficient Kevin, sufficient unto the day!†then I need to take heed. Yes, life, health, family , work, priorities, deadlines, etc. are all important, and we do need to plan ahead and number our days, but we need to take our worry to the Lord and find His grace in our time of need.
So class, sufficient! sufficient!
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June 5th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Dito - I’ve also found and continue to find myself in such situations. If we are not careful, our worry about the future can cripple us from pursing it. We need to wake up and realize that our lives are semi-controlled chaos that God is in complete control of. But, till the day I am given a new incorruptible body by our Lord Jesus Christ, I will continue to seek control of my chaos. I thank God that through His drawling of me into right standing with Him, and by regenerating me through the power of the Spirit, I am able to know the depths of this problem that plagues as a sinner and have hope of one day overcoming it!