worry

^{Matthew 6: 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 important than food, and the body more important 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? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

²⁸"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies 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, O 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.

It was my mischievous nephew, Aaron Barth, who opened this passage up to me 2 years ago.

Aaron came to staff prayer at SportsTowne that Friday morning. And he mentioned he'd been studying Matthew 6 lately.

He went on to say that all of this passage is summed up in the first few words - "don't worry about your life." (This is the NIV translation, btw.)

That was when God riveted my attention & whispered to me that this should be one of the verses I held on to.

I cannot tell you how many times God has whispered to me in the last 2 years, "don't worry about your life".

I used to be a world class worrier - I worried if I didn;t have something to worry about!

Now, after 2 years, I can't imagine what it would be like to go back to that kind of lifestyle!

NEVER underestimate what you're experiencing in your life - what if Aaron hadn't said that that morning?! How poor my life would be?! And how would I have navigated the last 2 years?!

Thanks, Aaron.

Thanks, Abba, for breaking the cycle of worry in my life.