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http://www.apostolic-churches.net/bible/av/la003.htm

3:22 [It is of] the LORD'S mercies that we are not

consumed, because his compassions fail not.

3:23 [They are] new every morning: great [is] thy

faithfulness.

http://www.soundofgrace.com/piper94/03-13-94.htm

March 13, 1994

Bethlehem Baptist Church

John Piper, Pastor

Today's Mercies for Today's Troubles;
Tomorrow's Mercies for Tomorrow's Troubles

(Matthew 6:34; Lamentations 3:22-23)

Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow
will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its
own.

The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for his
compassions never fail. They are new every morning;
great is Thy faithfulness.

Sometimes I have reinforced a sermon by following it up
with a STAR article. [The STAR is Bethlehem Baptist's
weekly newsletter.] Today I want to reinforce a STAR
article with a following sermon. The STAR article last
week was called, "Today's mercies for Today's troubles;
Tomorrow's mercies for tomorrow's troubles." There were
several points. One was this: every day God appoints a
measure of pleasure and pain for that day -- like the
old Swedish hymn says:

He whose heart is kind beyond all measure,
Gives unto each day what he deems best --
Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.

Kind beyond all measure, the Lord gives pain and
pleasure to each day as he deems best. We don't always
agree enthusiastically with what God deems best for us.
It is hard for us to feel that he is kind beyond all
measure when he gives us pain. Causing pain is not
generally equated with showing kindness. Especially if
God's measure for one day is a lot more than another
day. But it's true, as we will see more fully in a
moment. God gives each day his wise and loving measure
of pain and pleasure.

That was the first point of the STAR article.
The second was that there is fresh mercy from God for
each day's appointed pain. Today's mercies are not
designed to carry tomorrow's burdens. There will be
mercies tomorrow for that. Today's mercies are for
today's burdens.

But tomorrow? What about tomorrow?

What will become of our children? Will they believe? Or
will they forsake the way of righteousness?
What will become of our health? Will we go blind or deaf
or lose our memories? Who will take care of us? Will we
spend the last 10 years of our lives out-living all our
friends and family, abandoned, slumped over in a wheel
chair at rural nursing home?

What will become of our marriages? Will we ever trust
again? Will we laugh and play and pray and talk in
peace? Will we be there for the children? Will we be
there for each other? Will it be sad and strained and
dissatisfying for 30 or 40 more years? What will it be
like tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow?

What will become of our church? What will tomorrow
bring? Or Wednesday? Or next Sunday? Or a year from now?
Or ten years from now? Will there be 2000 by 2000? Will
we be together? Will we be winning the lost, and
standing for righteousness, and delivering the
oppressed, and sending more and more missionaries to the
unreached peoples, and resting in the care of 17
district elders, and worshiping with white-hot zeal for
the glory and grace of our great God?

What about tomorrow? Will we have the strength to live
tomorrow when it comes? And to live it well and wisely
and even joyfully, no matter what God's measure of pain
and pleasure?

The point of the STAR article was that the strength to
live tomorrow will be given tomorrow, not today. And it
will be given. Our task today is not to have the
strength needed for tomorrow's burdens. Our task today
is to live by the mercies given for today, and to
believe that there will be new mercies for tomorrow.
Today's mercies do not include strength for tomorrow;
they include faith that tomorrow's unseen mercies will
be sufficient for tomorrow.

I can't express how important I believe this is for the
living of the Christian life -- for children, for
teenagers, for college students and young adults in the
work world, for middle-aged people facing major life
changes, for older people with tremendous uncertainties
before them, for single people and married people. It's
important because of how natural and strong is the
impulse in our hearts to want to feel sufficient today
for tomorrow's challenges. We don't like it when the
gauge reads "empty" at the end of the day, and we have
to go to sleep -- if we can -- not feeling the power for
tomorrow's troubles.

The Christian's secret of dealing with trouble
There is a secret to the Christian life here that I want
you to get a handle on. If you don't -- if you go on
desperately needing to feel today the strength for
tomorrow, then it seems to me that either you will cave
in under the pressure of excessive anxieties, or you
will find a worldly strategy for developing immense ego
strength and persuade yourself that you really are
sufficient for tomorrow's troubles.

Neither of those is God's way. God's way is summed up in
two passages of scripture. One is Matthew 6:34, "Do not
be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for
itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (The
other text is Lamentations 3:22-23. See below.).

Let me tell you what I think that text does not mean. It
does not mean: Make no preparations for tomorrow's
needs. If you're a farmer the thought about tomorrow's
empty silos should cause you to sow your field with corn
months before you need the corn. Almost everything that
is worth doing requires some forethought and planning
and preparation. Jesus said, "Which of you desiring to
build a tower does not first sit down and count the
cost, whether he has enough to complete it?" (Luke
14:28). The point of Matthew 6:34 is not: don't make
wise preparations. The point is: don't bring the
troubles and uncertainties of carrying out those
preparations tomorrow into today. "Each day has enough
trouble of its own."

What does Jesus mean by "enough"? Or as the old
Authorized Version says, "Sufficient to the day is the
evil thereof." What does he mean by "sufficient"?
He means that your sovereign heavenly Father, who is
kind and wise beyond all measure gives unto each day
what he deems best, lovingly its part of pain and
pleasure. Each day's troubles are "enough" -- they are
"sufficient" -- because God determines their limit. God
decides what is enough and what is sufficient (cf. 1
Cor. 10:13).

You can know some of the pressures that are coming
tomorrow. And part of your job may be to make some
preparations for them. Those preparations are part of
today's "sufficient" trouble. But how those preparations
will turn out tomorrow, and whether you feel strong
enough today to do your part tomorrow -- that is not
something God wants you to carry today. Those are
tomorrow's burdens. God does not give mercies today for
bearing tomorrow's burdens.

For example, we on the staff must now plan and design
worship services for a while. It's like the farmer: we
know that if there is going to be a harvest of corporate
worship on Sunday, there needs to be some plowing and
sowing and watering earlier in the week. That's OK.
Jesus wants us to do that.

But what about the questions that start to arise from
the flesh: how will it go on Sunday? Will the people be
there? Will God meet us? Will it be real and deep and
earnest and life-changing and soul-winning and
Christ-exalting? Will the people be disappointed? With
these questions we can cross the line from faithful
preparation to unfaithful anxiety. We cross over from
dealing with today's sufficient burden (preparation),
and begin to borrow tomorrow's troubles(how will it be
received?). And that is spiritually very dangerous
because today's mercies are given by God for today's
burdens not tomorrow's.

Or the danger can happen another way. Not only can we
start to fret about how our preparations will turn out,
but we can start to fret over whether we will have the
resources to handle all the preparations after this.
What about Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday and Easter
and then April and May and June and July and August?
Will the spiritual resources be there? That too can be a
crossing over the line between faithful planning and
unfaithful anxiety. The strength to plan worship for
July 10, will be given on July 5th and 6th. And probably
not before.

Now where in scripture do I get this confidence that God
not only gives the trouble to each day that is
sufficient for that day, but also the mercies which are
tailor-made to carry that day's trouble?

I get it from (among other places) Lamentations 3:22-23,
"The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His
compassions never fail. They are new every morning;
great is Thy faithfulness."

It's the phrase "they are new every morning" that gives
me this great confidence that each day's mercies -- each
day's kindnesses -- are given specifically for that day.
Ponder that with me. Let it sink in. "His mercies . . .
are new every morning."

Why are they new every morning? Why does God do it that
way? It's not because yesterday's mercies were bad or
weak. It's because they were yesterday's. Yesterday's
mercies were for yesterday's burdens. Today's mercies
are for today's burdens. They are new every morning.
They are like the manna in the wilderness: you can't
keep it overnight. Enough comes for each day. You live
on God day by day, or you don't live on God.

The Swedish hymn gets it right again. The second verse
says,

Every day the Lord himself is near me,
With a special mercy for each hour."

A special mercy for each hour. The mercy to carry you
through this hour is given in this hour.

This truth will save your life again and again, if you
grasp it and live it. Because how many times in life do
we come to the end of our resources and say: there isn't
anything in here anymore. I am depleted. One more straw
and this camel's back will break. And we despair that
tomorrow will just be rolled on to today's depleted
condition.

And at that moment we desperately need this truth: God
will not expect you to carry one more straw with these
present mercies. When the next straw is added the
mercies will be new.

So we must not compound today's load with fretting over
tomorrow's. We must not doubt God and say, "I have no
more strength; so tomorrow will be impossible to live."

That's not true. You will not be asked to live tomorrow
on today's strength. What you need today is not
tomorrow's strength, but today's faith that tomorrow's
mercies will be new and will be enough.

And there's something different between the experience
of faith for tomorrow's power, and the actual experience
of that power itself. Faith stands on the promise of God
and waits and hopes in weakness and peace. And, of
course, that waiting and hoping is part of today's
mercy. Part of today's mercy is the ability to trust
that there will be sufficient mercy for tomorrow. And we
trust in that because God promises it in Lamentations

3:23 (cf. Phil. 4:19; 2 Cor. 9:8-11).

But in spite of all the peace that faith can bring about
today, it is not yet tomorrow's mercy or tomorrow's
power. There's a difference. And that's why there is
such a battle that goes on. We want the feeling of
adequacy today for what we will have to go through
tomorrow. But God says, Trust me. I will give it to you
when you need it.

Illustration

In 1931 a missionary named John Vinson was working in
North China. An army of bandits swooped down on his
village looting, burning and killing. They took 150
Chinese and Vinson captive. When the government troops
pursued the bandits offered Vinson his freedom if he
would write a letter to the commanding officer of the
government troops asking him to withdraw.

Vinson said, "Will you let the Chinese prisoners go
free?"

"Certainly not," was the reply.

"Then I refuse to go free," he said.

That night the bandits tried to flee, taking Vinson with
them. Many were killed, and many of the captives
escaped. Vinson could not run because of a recent
surgery. A little Chinese girl later reported that a
bandit pointed a gun at Vinson's head and said, "I'm
going to kill you. Aren't you afraid?"

Now at this point how do you feel? Are you projecting
yourself into Vinson's place? If so, do you feel rising
within you the power to respond with great serenity and
to die with peace? The point of what I have been saying
is this: you don't have to feel that right now. What God
wants from you now as you sit there is not the strength
to die that death. That is not today's trouble for you.

It may be tomorrow's. What God calls you to now is not
to have the power to do what Vinson did, but to have the
trust in God that when your time comes he will give what
you need.

Vinson looked up and said, "No, I am not afraid. If you
kill me, I will go straight to God." Which he did.

Today's mercies for today's troubles; tomorrow's mercies
for tomorrow's troubles. "As your days so shall your
strength be" (Deut. 33:25). Don't be anxious about
tomorrow. The troubles and the mercies are appointed day
by day.

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