Matthew 6:34
What does Matthew 6:34 mean?
Therefore don’t be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day’s own evil is sufficient.
The short answer
Matthew 6:34 is the last line of Jesus' teaching on worry in the Sermon on the Mount: "don't be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself." The logic is disarmingly simple. Tomorrow's troubles belong to tomorrow. You cannot solve them today, no matter how much mental energy you spend rehearsing them. Today already has enough difficulty of its own — as the verse puts it, "each day's own evil is sufficient."
Notice what Jesus is not saying. He is not forbidding planning, saving, or preparing; elsewhere in the Gospels he commends foresight. What he names as useless is anxiety — the churning, borrowed dread about things that have not happened yet. Worry does not lighten tomorrow's load; it only drains today's strength. Since we cannot know what tomorrow will bring, fretting over it accomplishes nothing.
The word "therefore" matters, too. This verse is a conclusion, not a stand-alone rule. In the verses just before it, Jesus has pointed to the birds of the sky and the lilies of the field: God feeds and clothes them, and you matter far more to your Father than they do. He has assured his listeners that God already knows what they need. The command to stop worrying rests on that foundation. Jesus is not asking for willpower so much as trust.
Read this way, Matthew 6:34 is an invitation to live one day at a time — to give your full attention to the day in front of you and to leave tomorrow in the hands of the God who cares for you. The verse trades an impossible burden (managing a future you cannot see) for a manageable one (facing today, with God's help).
What scholars say
These excerpts answer two connected questions: why Jesus calls worry about the future futile, and what makes it possible to stop. Martin Thielen reads the verse as an invitation to live in the present, one day at a time, while William Barclay supplies the ground for that confidence — we can cast our anxiety on God because we can be certain that God cares for us.
“For example, in Matthew 6, Jesus warns us not to be overly anxious about the future. He tells us not to worry too much about what we will eat, drink, or wear, for we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Therefore, worrying about the future is futile. Instead Jesus encourages us to live in the present moment. In this text Jesus said, “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Matt. 6:34). The Living Bible paraphrase of this passage helps capture the intent of Jesus’ words. It says, “So don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time.”
“Christians must cast all their anxiety upon God. ‘Cast your burden on the Lord’, said the psalmist (Psalm 55:22). ‘Do not worry about tomorrow’, said Jesus (Matthew 6:34). The reason we can do this with confidence is that we can be certain that God cares for us. As Paul had it, we can be certain that he who gave us his only Son will with him give us all things (Romans 8:32). We can be certain that, since God cares for us, life is out not to break us but to make us; and, with that assurance, we can accept any experience which comes to us, knowing that in everything God works for good with those who love him (Romans 8:28).”
What it means for you
Most of us carry tomorrow's weight around all day: the meeting next week, the bill next month, the diagnosis that might come. Matthew 6:34 offers a practical discipline — when your mind runs ahead, gently bring it back to today. What is actually in front of you right now? Do that, and let tomorrow wait its turn.
But discipline alone won't hold. The deeper invitation is trust: God, who knows your needs, will be present in tomorrow just as he is in today. You don't have to pre-live your troubles. You can meet them one day at a time, accompanied.
Matthew 6 in context
Matthew 6 sits in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. The chapter opens with Jesus teaching on giving, prayer, and fasting done quietly for God rather than for applause — including the Lord's Prayer, with its request for daily bread. He then turns to money and security: store up treasure in heaven, and remember you cannot serve both God and wealth. That leads directly into the passage on anxiety (verses 25–34), where Jesus points to birds and lilies as evidence of God's care. Verse 34 is the conclusion of that whole argument.