Read and Believe in Jesus.
“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” Matthew 6:33.
.
.
REVIEW – What is at the CENTER of our thinking, our vision, and our emotions? Jesus said they should be on things “above,” towards the light, and on God.
“Where your treasure is, there will your HEART be.”
“If your EYE is healthy, your whole body will be full of Light.”
“LOVE and serve only one Master: the Lord God.”
.
.
Matthew 6:25.
“Therefore… Jesus connects those “heavenly” ideas above to the down-to-earth worries we all have. He says that if our hearts are devoted to things above, our vision is centered on the light of truth, and we love God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and bodies… then we should not be anxious about anything.
Jesus instructed us to pray simply, “Give us this day our daily bread.” If we pray sincerely and with faith, why should we worry about food or anything else?
.
Matthew 6:26.
Jesus tells his followers (sitting on the hillside and us too) to Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are YOU not of more value than the birds?”
As His listeners looked up and spotted some sparrows or gulls, they might have nodded slightly in agreement. “Huh, I never thought about that.”
.
Matthew 6:27.
“And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his lifespan?” We today would probably agree totally, and in fact know that anxiety and stress can actually subtract hours, days and years from your life.
.
Matthew 5:28-30
“Consider the lilies of the field how they grow…” Surely this crowd glanced around at the flower covered hills, and perhaps even picked a small daisy or scarlet poppy growing by their knee to look at it closely.
“…they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” More nods as they really look closely at the intracacies of the flowers around them.
“But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”
Perhaps foreheads are wrinkled in consternation as they consider the velvety petals of the flowers compared to the roughspun material of their own tunics and robes. There’s a bit of doubt there as they doubt they’d ever have robes like Solomons. Perhaps their faith WAS small.
Then Jesus brings them back to His Kingdom.
.
Matthew 6:31-33.
Since God takes such good care of His world – from the tiny birds that flit in the air to the fields of flowers covering the hills around Capernaum – “Therefore, DO NOT BE ANXIOUS! ”
“Don’t say, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink? or ‘What shall we wear?’ for your heavenly Father KNOWS that you need them all.”
God knows all of that. Trust Him.
“But seek FIRST the kingdom of God and HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, and all these things will be added to you.”
Take care of the things God has called you to do… first. And He will take care of the things you need. No problem.
.
.“Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness, Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust in Him, and He will act. He will bring forth YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS as the light and your justice as the noon day.” Psalm 37:3-6
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:31.
Again, Jesus is pressing them to look up to the things of God.
.
Matthew 6:34.
“Therefore (the third time He uses the word in this section, Jesus is building on each truth, taking them deeper into the heart of God), “…do not be ANXIOUS about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
.
But also, we are not to be PRESUMPTUOUS.
James 4:13-14 – “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead your OUGHT to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.'”
.
.
.
