One of the pious used to say, "My friends! Is it possible that the Creator would ask you to perform today tomorrow's duties duties due a year or several years from now?"
They would answer him, "How could we be held responsible now for duties due at a time that we may never live to see? We are bound to perform a definite service only at a definite period. When that time comes, we will be obligated to render the service." He would then say to them, "Thus too the Creator, may He be exalted, has promised you for every definite period a certain provision, and in return for it you are bound to definite service. Just as He does not demand service from you before its time, so should a sense of shame restrain you from asking for the granting of provision before its time. Why then do I find you seeking from Him provisions for years ahead which you may not live to see? You ask that He provide you in advance with maintenance for your wife and children who do not yet exist. Provisions for your basic needs alone are not enough for you; rather, you want to be provided in advance with basics and with luxuries for an indefinite period of which you have no guarantee of life. Not only do you not render service to Him in advance, but you fail to make a personal account of your neglect of His mercy in the past times when He never neglected to provide you with your needs." pg 461
Once, on a Motzoei Shabbos, the chasidim were sitting in the bais medrash of the Ruzhiner Rebbe zy”a for Melave Malka. Suddenly, the Rebbe opened the door of his room next to the bais medrash, stood at the entrance, and said, “The Baal Shem Tov was not a deity, and the zaida, the Magid, was not just an ordinary wagon driver. And once, when the holy Baal Shem Tov prayed, his talis fringe fell out of his gartel and dragged on the floor. The Magid approached, picked it up, and put it back in the gartel, but he was trembled with such tremendous fear that he fainted and his life was in danger. They were compelled to rouse the Baal Shem Tov from his deep dveikus in order to calm him.” He then added, “I told you that the Baal Shem Tov was not a deity and my zaida, the Magid, was no wagon driver. Still and all, when he touched the Besht’s garment, he fainted from fear. The entire world is Hashem’s garment. How much fear must we feel to touch this world!” May the memory of the...