don't worry about your life

If you've ever read these verses before, forget that you have - today they are brand new.

Now then, don't read them with all the portent that we have when we read something from the Bible.

Instead, pretend you're sitting somewhere with Jesus.

(C'mon... work with me here!)

Imagine you're sitting quietly somewhere with Jesus, & He turns to you and says this to you

How are you gonna think about your life & all those things you worry about?

I worry about some things these days - given the state of our world right now, I think we'd have to be dead from the neck up to not worry.

This morning as I came to read, I was fretting about some things.

And then I read this section in Matthew 6 - it was the chapter I was slated to read this morning in my sequential reading of Matthew.

Interesting I would read it this morning as I was fretting - hmmmmmm.....

My mischievous nephew, Aaron Barth, said something very profound to me back in January of 2008.

He'd been studying chapter 5, 6, & 7 at that time, & he said this to me...

"ya know, you don't have to read that who section - it's all summed up in what Jesus says at the beginning...

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

I can't tell you the countless times over these succeeding 6 years God has whispered to me those 5 words.

Something tells me He's gonna keep whispering those words to me for a long time.


Ok, we're imagining we've never heard this before, that we're sitting quietly with Jesus, & He turns to us & says...




...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?


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?

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

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,

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

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?


So don't worry about these things,

     saying,

     'What will we eat?

     What will we drink?

     What will we wear?'

These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers,

     but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.


Seek the Kingdom of God above all else,

     and live righteously,

     and He will give you everything you need.


So don't worry about tomorrow,

     for tomorrow will bring its own worries.

     Today's trouble is enough for today.

(Matthew 6:25-34 NLT)