“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.” Matthew 6:34 KJV
Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution that you were able to keep till the end of the year? MAYBE NOT! But as for me, I’ve never made a New Year’s Resolution and I won’t be making one this year either. Why?
Because it’s absurd! Think about it: A resolution, or a promise, is a Big Deal. And when we make them with the entire year ahead of us, well–that’s quite a long haul.
Plus, January and February are just dreadful months and an awful time to have to keep our resolutions. But people go ahead and make dumb resolutions anyway and 99% of the time these resolutions are not kept.
Remember this: When we make a promise, that promise is going to weigh on us. It’s only going to make us do the opposite because we’re going to be thinking about the promise all the time. When we make a resolution, we’re our own worst enemies. We’re going to be fighting our own selves.
Now, let us look at our text, Matthew 6:34, as it applies to the making of a New Year’s Resolution.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow:
We can find the reference to this in Proverbs 27:1, where it says,
“Boast not thyself of to morrow: for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.”
A man cannot promise or assure himself, that he shall have a tomorrow. Therefore, it is great absurdity and folly to be anxiously thoughtful about it. This is expressed in the sense of the Lord Jesus Christ’s words, after this manner:
“Do not distress thyself with tomorrow’s affliction, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth; perhaps tomorrow may not be, and thou wilt be found distressing thyself, for the time which is nothing to thee.”
And should it come, it is, therefore, unnecessary to be thoughtful of it in a distressing manner before hand.
For the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.
The morrow is here introduced by a “prosopopeia”, as if it is a person sufficiently thoughtful and careful for the necessaries of it. Every day brings along with it fresh care and thought, being attended with fresh wants and troubles.
Consequently, it is very unadvisable for a reasonable man to bring the cares and troubles of two days, a week, a month, or even a year, upon one day. However, people are anxiously concerned today for the things of tomorrow.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
This proverb is thus expressed in this manner:
“Sufficient for distress or vexation, is the present time.”
Sufficient for the vexation it is, that men should grieve for it, at the time that it comes upon them.
And so, it is very wrong to anticipate trouble, or meet it before hand. If it was for no other reason but this, that every day’s trouble is enough, and should not be needlessly added to, by an over concern what shall be done for tomorrow or how shall the necessities of it be answered, or the trials of it be endured.
Here’s one way to approach this year and every year:
Let us not allow ourselves to get too carried away on any front. Let us try to live fully but moderately. Let us avoid excess whenever we can.
