"Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34

We have a way of trying to peer over God's shoulder and then of trying to take things out of His hands by putting them into our own. The trouble with this is that we then try to make ourselves bigger than we are and God smaller than He is. This is not good for us, for it vastly overrates us and our abilities. Nor is it to the glory of God, for it grossly underrates His wisdom and power.

But there is another trouble, too. We may try to take upon ourselves burdens that God never intended to come on us at all. We spend our strength, not just on the carrying of the real load of the present as God permits this present to come upon us; instead we reach out for imaginary loads as well.

We forget something, too: strength to bear comes from bearing. Under the wisdom of God the strength we shall need to bear the burdens of the future come from our experience with the burdens -- and with God's faithfulness -- of the past. God alone sees the end from the beginning; and from that beginning He has made provision for the end. Therefore the apostle Paul tells His Christians to place their problems and their future in the lap of God and to leave them there.

PRAYER: O unforgetting God, let Your mercy and power give peace to our present. Amen.

(Taken from "Words of Promise," copyright 1996 (out of print), Concordia Publishing House. For information on other devotional materials, call 1-800-325-3040.)

Today's Bible Readings: Isaiah 20-22    Ephesians 5:1-16

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