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| Worry! |
Matthew 6:25 Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
Matthew 6:28 So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Matthew 6:31 Therefore do not worry, saying, "What shall we drink? or What shall we wear?' 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
If we look at the context of how this is given, we find that Matthew 6 points to do good to please God. Matthew 6:1 Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
So seeking God is paramount and high over that of trying to gain praise from men.
Jesus goes on to enlist prayer in Matthew 6:5-15 and then He talks about fasting to be seen only by God and not to go tell the many you know of your fasting practices.
Then Jesus gives the warning of avarice. Because avarice had a friend attached and he is called anxiety!
Now Jesus does not prohibit material possessions but He does object to material possessions having rule over us and tying us to this earth. For those selfish in nature will chase that extravagant materialism and we should seek not to have that kind of eye.
Jesus goes on to mention the importance of our eye and that if our eye is bad, our whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in us is darkness, how great is that darkness!
We should be running to have a relationship with the Lord so we have a developed commitment to Him, to His will and to His ways.
When we get to Matthew 6:24 we find Jesus talking about one cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve God and mammon. We will either serve God or we will serve money. Proverbs tells us that riches has wings and will fly away.
Proverbs 23:4-5 Do not work to be rich; because or your own understanding, cease! 5 Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly can make themselves wings; they fly away like an eagle toward heaven.
I know about twenty years ago that there was much teaching about how God wanted us to prosper and they emphasized money. But God wants us to manage money so it will not manage us. I heard a report the other day of how many people are maxed out on their credit cards again just like those back in 2008 and 2009! And we know a lot that happened and contributed to the scandalous practices of money lenders then was about bankers in many loaning departments loaned people money to buy homes they could not afford to pay back, for what they made monthly was short of their required payment needed monthly for repayment!
Worry causes us to be divided from our attention toward God. If our vision of God is divided by money matters, our vision is then divided. And division will divide one into portions and pieces. Daily needs occur, but it should not be that which brings division for that is unfruitful. Worry moves us out of faith and into unbelief. It is acting like God does not exist when He certainly does exist.
My husband and I just saw last week ( November 12) of the planet Neptune having the two moons, and one of them rotates around the planet, but the other moon is stationary. The one moon actively rotating does this oscillation move that avoids the stationary moon when it makes its orbit close to it. NASA had just released this picture showing what it look like and I was in 'awe' of a great God who created these two moons that project the very existence of His glorious skill in being the Creator!
In viewing this orbit, this dancing motion of a moon, the orbiting moon moves consistently away out of line of the stationary moon and keeps right on moving through its ordered orbit around Neptune. Amazing!
So how could you or I be worried about tomorrow, about money or even healing when we have a God who has such strategy to move us out of harm's way to continue in the step of full light when we first seek Him and His plan for our lives? Our lives are in His hands. He has greater care for us because He has a plan for us.
Whatever provision we require, it will always follow that person whose priorities are concerned with God's ways, His work and His will which is His kingdom. If God's kingdom has come into our lives, then it is His rule we will see and His provision will flow to us without hindrances.
Jesus faced temptation at key moments of His ministry: in the wilderness prior to His public ministry, prior to His transfiguration and prior to His crucifixion.
Like Jesus, we have to know that we are a son of God, and when we know we have this walk of faith, we cannot be deterred by the Peter's in this life! For Jesus told them in Matthew 16:21-27 that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day. ( Matthew 16:21) Yet Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!"
Then Jesus rebuked Peter! Matthew 16:23 "Get behind Me Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."
And remember Satan said the same to Jesus denoting that he could avoid suffering when Jesus met him in the wilderness and before the ministry began!
And right before Jesus was taken in the Garden of Gethsemane, it was time for praying, but the disciples could not stay awake one hour to pray with Him!
Worry can appear, but we must take it captive with the words of Jesus. The kingdom is presented and we are to live by faith as Jesus did in that grace that was presented to the world! Although many will not heed the love of God that came in the package of Jesus Christ, still He is the only way to the Father. (John 14:6)
Jesus told us in John 14:7 If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him." Jesus was always about revealing the Father and His love for His creation.
We have so many opportunities to see the Father in all His glory, like the two moons around the planet Neptune, in the Scripture of His Son's crucifixion or even of His birth. But alas, those who truly believe are those who will do the same works as Jesus and will do greater works because Jesus returned to His Father who sent Him. For whatever we ask in His name, that he will do, that the Father be glorified in the Son.
Only faith, that trust in Jesus will bring the required results but worry will only bring a divided focus, a divided vision of what is before us. And if His name is on it, He will do it for He spoke it from the foundation of the world.
Worry today and be dismissed tomorrow to lack and no vision. But challenge worry and build your thought life with His thoughts and you will see and do greater things for it by His grace, that we achieve His kingdom's purposes for His glory indeed! Amen
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