25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
In the NIV the subtitle for this portion of scripture is DO NOT WORRY. (I just sang be happy following this.) Easier said than done I know. I'm a worrier, just ask the husband. I start to get in a spiral and can't stop. I can't breathe and become overwhelmed. I can't seem to stop once it's in rotation. I was reading this portion of scripture today and God pointed out a few portions of scripture that I wanted to share with you.
V27. Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
If you take the word worrying out of that sentence and add stressing, sulking, avoiding, seeking fleshly desires, or doubting in there it means the same to me. It doesn't matter what you do, you can't take the time away that you spend worrying. I know the portion of scripture before talks about the birds. They eat and don't have any issues doing so. Therefore we shouldn't worry about these things that the scripture talks about. BUT WE DO. And it consumes our time.
Stressing ourselves over and over about things that are out of our control. Look, I'm preaching to myself here. I spend so much time overwhelming myself. Sulking in the thoughts that, well this isn't going to get done. Or this isn't going to happen. Or hey, this might not get accomplished when I said it would. I worry about letting people down or disappointing them. I would say that I spend a large amount of my day doing that.
I recently took a hard look at my "time management" on my phone. I was floored when my 'social media' was upwards of 5-6 hours a DAY! I was completely disappointed with myself. At first it was a "holy crap" that's a load of time. Then it became, I could be doing something different with my time. I could be benefitting others, including my son. Now I have a block on my phone that cuts my time down. And it locks all my apps at 10PM and doesn't unlock them until 9AM. I can't get those hours back, but changing my thought process will allow me to be more productive.
You can do the same with your worrying or stressing. 'Flip the flow' as Steven Furtick would say. Flip the situation and change how you handle it. Make it something for your benefit instead of your hangup!
V32. for the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them.
Some people consume themselves with chasing the almighty dollar. I can't say that I don't attempt to do what I can to make more dough. But there is a key portion of this. KNOWS THAT YOU NEED THEM. Not want. But need. God isn't going to let us go without the things that we need to survive. Worldly people run after the wants, not the needs. They are consumed with filling their flesh that they don't care about the necessities of life. God knows what you need. You don't have to keep telling him. And we really have to make some conscious effort in making sure we know what we NEED instead of what we WANT.
V33. But SEEK FIRST his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
This is the reason this blog is being written. So this scripture says SEEK FIRST the kingdom of God. In Psalm 37:4 it talks about delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. But I firmly believe that God won't give you the desires of your heart if they A) don't align with his desires. B) aren't in his will. or C) you aren't seeking him first.
There is scripture upon scripture about filling the desires of your flesh. Gal 5:16, Romans 13:14, Col 3:5 just to name a few. We tend to want to seek our desires first and not be obedient to our Heavenly Father. You know, it isn't easy to kill your flesh daily! Sometimes it's harder than others. Trust and believe that we all battle demons we don't want people to know about. Our flesh gives birth to so many downfalls. Thats why the scripture says that we are to pick up our cross DAILY, not just on Sunday and Wednesday. It also tells us that we are to put our flesh to death. And it's not an easy concept. I beat my body daily!
Whether it's worry, stress, feeding your flesh. We all know that it's not what God desires for us. And yet, we all fail. We all have faults and failures that we have to deal with. No matter what. Know that God is going to provide what you need. You can't get the time back that you spend overwhelming yourself with things you shouldn't. SEEK GOD FIRST! Be obedient to his word. And keep on keeping on.
No comments:
Post a Comment