LORD Jesus, I do my best to take one day at a time, but how often I get to the end of the day and there is so much unfinished business.
I know a successful day is one in which I have stayed in touch with You, even when many things remain undone at the end of the day.
When communicating with You is my highest priority, I know You are pleased.
Just help me do the best I can with what I have, for Your sake today, and to leave all the unfinished business to You for another day.
I pray this in Jesus' precious, eternal, and faithful name. Amen.
Changes: paragraph breaks for pacing; a comma after "what I have" and after "today" so the clauses breathe; hyphens in "precious, eternal, and faithful" as a proper serial list. Your definition of a successful day — "one in which I have stayed in touch with You, even when many things remain undone" — is left exactly as you wrote it, because it's the theological center of the whole prayer and it doesn't need improving.
Verses for Today: "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." (Matthew 6:34 NLT)
"But the Lord said to her, 'My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.'" (Luke 10:41–42 NLT)
"This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24 NLT)
Luke 10 is today's prayer's parable, Martha was drowning in unfinished business — legitimate business, serving business, ministry business — and Jesus didn't tell her the work was bad. He told her Mary had chosen the one thing that "will not be taken away from her." Notice what Jesus never said: "Martha, you should have gotten it all done." Her to-do list was never the measuring stick. The sitting-at-His-feet was.
And Matthew 6:34 in the NLT puts it in my exact idiom: "Today's trouble is enough for today." Jesus handed out a one-day-at-a-time budget — no advance credit issued for tomorrow's worries, and no penalty assessed for today's leftovers. Thank You, LORD!
