don't worry

Matthew 6

25b ...don't worry about your life...

     whether you have enough food and drink,

     or enough clothes to wear.

Isn't life more than food,

     and your body more than clothing?


26 Look at the birds.

        They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns,

        for your heavenly Father feeds them.

     And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?


27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?



  28 "And why worry about your clothing?

Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow.

     They don't work or make their clothing,

     29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.


30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today

        and thrown into the fire tomorrow,

     he will certainly care for you.


Why do you have so little faith?



  31 "So don't worry about these things, saying,

     'What will we eat?

     What will we drink?

     What will we wear?'

32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers,

but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.



33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else,

        and live righteously,

        and he will give you everything you need.



  34 So don't worry about tomorrow,

          for tomorrow will bring its own worries.

     Today's trouble is enough for today.



My mischievous nephew, Aaron Barth,came to staff prayer one morning.

He told me that he had been studying Matthew 5-7, called by some as the Sermon on the Mount.

And he said something remarkable...


"Ya know, that whole section about the lilies of the field & the birds of the air? Jesus could have stopped at the very beginning of all that & just said 'don't worry about your life'. He didn't need to say the rest."



What he said rocked my world.

It still does.

And it's just as true now (if not more) than it was then.

I'm a worrier.

Yeah, I know that worry is really just a full blown lack of trust.

But anyway, I'm a worrier.

And Jesus whispered to me then, & continues to whisper to me...

"...don't worry about your life..."



How then would we all live if we truly believe what Jesus said?