Matthew 6:33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Well, we got the promised rain yesterday, but thankfully none of the white stuff. (smile) Meanwhile, after a night of fog, this Wednesday morning has opened wet and cloudy, and who knows how it will work out, but anyway it does, we believers in Christ will be able to handle it, because our Lord and Saviour is at the helm of our good ship Life. That’s the beauty of living for Jesus; He’s always there to help, no matter the circumstances!
And today we’ll share the monthly prayer found in the In Touch Devotional. So please pray with me: ‘God, it’s easy to focus on what is wrong in my life rather than what is right. I find myself overwhelmed by all the injustice, pain, and division in the world. Forgive me for the times I’ve chosen to feed negativity, to spread hopelessness among my friends and family. But I’m not alone in my grief. You are heartbroken by these things too. So, Lord, I pray for Your guidance in sorrow. I want to lament all that is wrong – without being consumed by it. Teach me to balance grief with the assurance of Your LOVE. May my heartbreak, empathy, and faith play a role in Your healing of the world. Amen.’
Oh friends, that’s a very interesting prayer, as our world is in utter chaos and we’re feeling overwhelmed by the atrocities and disasters that are taking place, but at the same time we cannot afford to get lost in all the negativity that’s happening around us. We need to keep a fine balance between what’s happening, how we can help, mainly in prayer, and not let our grief at the situation drag us down and make us lose our assurance of God’s LOVE and healing power. We need to see the overall situation, lament it, but still keep our fate and hearts strong and steadfast in Christ, and do what we can in our own li’l sphere to prevent it from spreading there.
The overall situation is God’s to deal with, and we do need to have empathy for others in their dire situations, but our role predominantly is to deal with the problems we have close to home. And that’s a major problem right now, for too many of us are allowing the world situation to confuse and confuffle our hearts, minds, bodies and souls, and thus lack the necessary strength, both physically and spiritually to take care of our own business. We’re looking too intently at the world and wondering what’s going to happen, and allowing the negativity to dampen and even quench the fire in our lives.
And that’s not hard to do, when we already have a propensity, as the prayer says, for focusing on what is wrong in our lives rather than what is right. Now is that ever so true. If ninety nine things out of a hundred are right with us, we automatically seem to focus on the one thing that’s wrong, rather than the ninety nine that are right. For whatever reason, we tend to focus on the bad, even when the good is much more predominant in our lives. Look at how we behave when we see one pimple on our faces, one hair falling out, we’ve put on one pound. We hold our heads and bawl, and lament, woe is me, although everything else is perfectly fine with us!
But what did Jesus teach us about worrying eh, especially when you can’t do anything about the situation. He said: ‘Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for (do not worry about) your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not life more than meat (food), and the body than raiment (clothes)?’ (Matt. 6:25) Yes, it certainly is! But until we are sufficiently mature in Christ, we will always place clothes and food at the top of our most wanted list and worry unnecessarily when they seem to be in short supply.
But listen to Jesus as He expounds further on the subject. ‘Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?’ (Matt. 6:26) For sure, we’re better than the birds, so if they don’t worry about food and are constantly fed, why should we, who enjoy a much better position in Christ than them. And as Jesus asked: ‘Which one of you by taking thought (worrying) can add one cubit unto his stature (height)?’ (Matt. 6:27) Not a single one of us can do that friends! So why worry eh?
Then Jesus goes on to point how the lilies of the field are so pretty, even better dressed than Cousin Sol in all his glory, but yet they neither toil nor spin. ‘Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?’ (Matt. 6:30) And I like how Jesus doesn’t mince words, He just comes right out and says it, re our importance to God, showing the smallness of our faith, despite all our big talk.
And He continues: ‘Therefore take no thought (do not worry), saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow (don’t worry about tomorrow): for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil (trouble) thereof.’ (Matt. 6:31-34)
And please note that Jesus isn’t saying that we pay no attention whatsoever to our needs or planning some for tomorrow, but it should not completely take over our souls and lives, so much so that we can’t put God first. Yes friends, when we focus more on the spiritual than the physical or material, God will provide all the material things we need to function in His kingdom, ‘for where God guides, He provides.’ How did Bruh David put it in Psalm 37? ‘I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed (descendants) begging bread.’ (Ps. 37:25) And that’s the gospel truth, for the Lord looks after His own.
And now, for those of us who consider ourselves God’s own (smile), let’s go home declaring (yesss!!!) our Wednesday Wail letting the whole world know of our sincere and secure position in Christ Jesus. As one voice: ‘Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: I’m so glad to be alive on this Wednesday! Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: Thank God the breath of life is still flowing through me on this Wednesday! I am halfway home. My hands are fixed securely on the plough, and I’m not turning back. I’m not looking back at the past, not focusing on what has gone before. But my eyes are fixed straight ahead; straight ahead to a glorious future with Jesus. Glory Hallelujah!’
Then there’s this addendum: if we endure to the end with Christ, then the promised future will be even more glorious than we can think or imagine! Wow! So let’s vow to all meet at the very end nuh! That’s what wisdom dictates. Much LOVE!
…if you can’t fix it…then don’t worry about it…for worrying only brings negative results…
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