You Cannot Be Happy Tomorrow

Philippians 4:11, “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”

I heard a life changing sermon today by Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001). It is titled, “The Yesterdayer, the Todayer, and the Tomorrower.” I encourage all of my ministry followers to start listening to the preaching of Brother Hyles on a regularly basis, if you don't already. I jotted down some notes from the sermon to help you. These are great truths!

Which category do you fall under: Yesterdayer, Todayer or Tomorrower?

Dear reader, if you're happy it's today. Until you get satisfied with today, you'll never be happy. Are you a Yesterdayer? Are you always wanting today to be like yesterday, when times were better? You can't. Yesterday is gone! I am now 59 years old. I cannot feel 40, 30 or 20 again. I cannot relive those wonderful years when my wife was loyal and by my side.

Are you a Tomorrower? Are you always looking through a haze to a brighter future here on earth. Many spouses think the grass is greener in someone else's marriage, so they divorce their spouse and marry another person, just to find out that the next husband or wife is just as bad, or worse. Some people are always chasing rainbows! Take off the rose-colored glasses and learn to appreciate what you have. Plant some grass seeds in your own yard.

As long as you're a Yesterdayer or a Tomorrower, you'll never be happy! People dream about tomorrow with fantasies, and then when tomorrow arrives they reminisce about how wonderful yesterday was. This is their whole life—never happy, never satisfied, never content. When we think about the past, we tend to only focus on the positive things that made us happy, but if we'll be honest with our self, the past did include negatives that we'd rather forget. So, whether we are looking backward or forward, we tend to only see what we want to see, not reality.

Another favorite sermon by Brother Hyles is titled: "Learn To Enjoy Where You Are, While On Your Way To Where You Are Going." These sermons will change your life dear reader if you'll heed the wisdom. Most people are miserable today, because they're always looking to the future for happiness, or dwelling upon a filtered fictional past. They were complaining in the past as much as they do today, but they have forgotten how bad it was yesterday.

Many people are in a state of discontentment. They'll never be happy! They dream of going to paradise, but if they ever got there they'd still be miserable and it wouldn't be paradise, because they'd still be there! Until we can learn to relish the moment, and become comfortable in the present, we'll never be happy in life.

I think a lot of believers who contact my ministry—who are discouraged, down and destitute in life—it is largely because they have never learned to be content with today, satisfied with what they have. There are two ways to become rich:

1. Have all you want
2. Want all you have

I just want all I have. You can have very little in life, and yet be rich, if you are content. And contrariwise, there are billionaires who are miserable, still not content with what God has given them. Everything is a mindset in life.

I have never owned a new car in my life. I am 59 years old. I don't want a new car. I love old things. My present vehicle is a 2014 Honda FIT, and I love it, mainly because it is 100% paid for. I saved up money on Guam before I moved to Pensacola in 2021. I paid about $12,000 cash (including sales taxes) and bought the vehicle before I had even left Guam, from a Honda dealership in Pensacola. One of their kind employees even picked me up at the airport and drove me to the dealership to get my new (old) car. They had already acquired my license plates. They were very nice to me, which I am still very grateful to them for doing. I am still driving the same reliable vehicle and Lord willing, plan to drive it until it is either beyond repair, gets stolen or smashed. So far it has served me very well. I am happy with it. Thank you Lord!

I live a simple life. I have all I need and am content and happy in the Lord, despite my chronic health afflictions that torment me night and day mercilessly. God is faithful (1st Corinthians 1:9). Job 13:15, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.” Job 19:25, “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” My full trust is in God my Savior!

Pastor Hyles says your whole disease is that you are not a Todayer. You're not satisfied with today. We foolishly have the wrong attitude, "It's always going to get like I dream it will be." But our fantasies don't include any negatives. You can't be happy tomorrow, because tomorrow will be today when tomorrow comes. So, if you're not happy today, when tomorrow comes and it is today again, you still won't be happy. Boy this is good stuff!

Dear reader, learn to embrace the moment, now! We can be happy right now, simply by thanking God in every thing, and learning to enjoy where we are at. This is what causes nearly all of our unhappiness. Be a Todayer. Get comfortable with today, right now! Yesterday is a cashed check. Tomorrow is a promissory note. All we have is cash to spend today. Spend it wisely. Worrying about tomorrow won't change anything, but it empties today of our Christian joy. God gives us trials and burdens to make us better, not bitter.

We're all guilty at times of being Yesterdayers and Tomorrowers, by either dwelling upon a filtered fictional past or by looking to the future through a blinding haze, missing the moment. If you've never come to grips with settling to be happy today, you'll never be happy. This is something that I think we would all be wise to continue working at, to learn to enjoy today.