Matthew 6:25-34 “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? 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? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to
his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that
even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 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? “Therefore
do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or 'What shall we drink?’ or ‘What
shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly
Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do
not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.
Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. NKJV
Worry is an enemy at times for every person, but the
cares of this life are of upper most importance to the men and women of the
world. There remains a veil over their spiritual eyes that keep them from
seeing the brevity of this life, the reality of their own death, and the
enormity of eternity which will bring to naught all the things accumulated here
and now. Therefore, worry is extremely common for the men and women outside of
a relationship with Jesus Christ, but it is also something that plagues those
of us who have been redeemed by the “blood of the Lamb.” Worry can be something
carried out in action daily or periodically. Worry often produces stress and
has been determined to cause or contribute to many physical ailments or
diseases like high blood pressure and more importantly mental diseases or
disorders.
Man has defined worry in this manner: 1) to be
concerned, anxious, troubled, or uneasy. 2) Something or someone that causes
anxiety; a source of unhappiness. 3) Disturb
the peace of mind of; afflict with mental agitation or distress. The Lord Jesus
used the word in the Greek, merimnao,
which meant “to be anxious about.” Our
Lord knows the destructive force that anxiety is to the mind of a person consumed
with it regularly. Therefore, in the beginning of Matthew Chapter 6 He teaches
us that our Father in Heaven sees into the secret places of our hearts and knows
what we need, desire, and fret over. Our Lord teaches us to do nothing for show
or public adoration, but to instead go into our secret place of communion with
the Father speaking to Him as an earthly child comes to his/her Father for
help. In the next Chapter our Lord said, “If you then, being evil, know how to
give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in Heaven
give good things to those who ask Him!”
Philippians
4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of
God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus. NKJV
It is the enemy that wants our hearts and minds to
be filled with worry so that we will be unable to war against his attacks and
he wants us to distrust our Heavenly Father. Our Lord Jesus wants us to be
assured that our responsibility is only to the Kingdom of God and His
righteousness and in our so doing we will not have to worry about these temporal
things down here. Our Lord has not called us to build a personal kingdom here
on the earth. The Apostle Paul learned this as he walked with our Lord and said
this, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
2
Peter 3:10-13 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in
which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt
with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned
up. Therefore, since all these things
will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy
conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God,
because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements
will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look
for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. NKJV
Therefore, when we take these words from the Apostle
Peter to heart about the coming end of this earth and the things in it as we
know them now and put those words alongside our Lord telling us to not worry
about our living necessities, then we get a clearer Heavenly perspective of the
importance of the Righteous Kingdom of God residing in the hearts of men,
women, boys, and girls who will come to Him in repentance and faith. Every day here
on this present earth for the child of God is a day lived in a foreign land and
in hostile territory. We must then put our complete confidence and trust that
our Heavenly Father will work out all things for our good and for His glory.
Our Lord told us elsewhere that, “If you abide in
Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be
done for you.” This is a conditional promise to us that when we stay fixed in
Him as rebar is fixed in concrete, then we can come to Him with all of our
petitions trusting that He hears and will provide according to our needs. There
are many things that confront the new creature in Christ always soliciting our outpouring
of worry and I have been guilty of succumbing far too often and bringing
trouble to my soul. However, when I remember the words of my Lord and know that
He is over and in control of everything that confronts me good and bad and know
that His Sovereign purpose is at work then my response is just to return to
keeping my mind stayed upon Him and trusting in Him completely.
Proverbs
16:3 Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He
will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your
plans be established {and} succeed. QAB
“Worry does
not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.” Corrie Ten
Boom
“Worry,
like a rocking chair, will give you something to do, but it won't get you
anywhere.” Vance Havner
“A Christian's freedom from anxiety is not due to
some guaranteed freedom from trouble, but to the folly of worry and especially to the
confidence that God is our Father, that even permitted suffering is within the
orbit of His care.” John Stott
Sincerely in Christ,
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you
Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus
Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and
Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple
I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reader,
Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
No comments:
Post a Comment