Maybe Tomorrow How To Overcome Procrastination | Short Sermon Series

For those prone to procrastinate, tomorrow can sound like the magic word. However, if an unwelcome task is a thorn, tomorrow will not change it into a rose. The thorn will still be there, unwelcome as ever. And whether today or tomorrow, we will still need to grab it.

Unfortunately, our inner procrastinator proves surprisingly impervious to sense. So, along with common sense, our Lord gives more grace. When we look at today’s trouble and feel tempted to say, “Tomorrow, tomorrow,” he speaks a twofold promise: strength for today, and a harvest tomorrow.

Why do some of us wave the wand of tomorrow so frequently? Often, because we feel like we just don’t have what it takes today.

In such moments, when we stare at some unwelcome task and feel no strength to do it, we can forget that God often gives strength only as we start doing. The Jordan River stopped only as the priests stepped in (Joshua 3:13). The ten lepers were cleansed only as they walked away from Jesus (Luke 17:11–14). Today’s grace will be sufficient for today’s trouble, even if that grace has not arrived yet. So, when we face some unwelcome duty and feel our inward weakness, the wise learn to say, “Not tomorrow — today,” trusting that help is on the way.

The book of Proverbs casts procrastination in the context of the harvest: “The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing” (Proverbs 20:4). Our inner procrastinator loves tomorrow, but only because he does not see tomorrow clearly. If he did, he would notice the coming harvest and know that today’s nap might be tomorrow’s barren field. In other words, we reap tomorrow what we sow today.

For now, we live in a thorn-covered land, where unwelcome tasks fill every day’s to-do list. One day our God will clear the land, and “instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle” (Isaiah 55:13). But for now, we live among thorns. And one way we glorify God is by grabbing today’s thorns with today’s grace.

Article by Scott Hubbard @desiringgod. Designed by @beth.low