Early this morning I was looking at a couple of devotionals and newsletters that I receive daily online and there are all kinds of articles about how we as Christians are to live in the midst of this pandemic. Titles like “Stand Together Against Covid-19”, “10 Real Fears Surrounding Covid-19,” “What Are the Signs of the End Times and the Rapture?”, “29 Lessons for Leaders on How to Persevere During the Coronavirus”, “5 Ways to Share and Do Good During Covid-19”, and on and on it goes. 29 ways to persevere that “29 Lessons” could be the next one. That is just one day of articles. This obviously has everyone’s attention and even Christian authors are trying to come up with Scripture to give you a quick fix on how to make it through. They are all trying to calm us and are doing their best to keep us from worrying, and yet there are 5 articles just this morning in my email inbox.
This morning one of the devotionals referred to Matthew 6:25 where Jesus continues in His sermon on the mount and He says: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life…” The writer went on to talk about not worrying. Pretty simple, don’t you think? Do not worry. I have to believe that there are a few people reading this that have worried at one time or another. Maybe you are in the middle of worry or maybe you are even overwhelmed with worry to the point where you are sick and almost not able to function. Your countenance has changed and you are a totally different person right now. Someone once defined worry to me as “assuming responsibility for something that God never intended you to be responsible for.” Think about that. If you are not responsible for the outcome of something, then what will worry do? Does it now mean that you have a solution? If you can do something about it, then do it. Maybe you do not trust the One who is responsible? Maybe you think that He needs help with how best to handle this situation? Do you honestly think that there is anything that skips by God or is out of His line of sight? Anything?
Check out these verses:
2 Chronicles 16:9 “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him…”
Job 31:4 “Does He not see my ways and count my every step?”
Jeremiah 16:17 “My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from Me, nor is their sin concealed from My eyes.”
Hebrews 4:13 “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
Jesus goes on to elaborate on that “do not worry” stuff in Matthew 6. He tells us to look at the birds of the air, so do that. Go outside and check them out. They do not plant nor do they harvest it. They do not store food away in barns and yet they eat. God feeds them. He makes sure that they have enough food. Jesus asks if you worry, is it possible for you to add one hour to your life? Go into your bathroom and look into the mirror. Look at what is in front of you. You do not look the same as you did 10 years ago, unless you have lots of extra money to make that change. Now start to think about how you can add one hour to your life. How did you do? If you have come up with something, write a book and make lots of money because people will buy it. He tells us to look at the lilies of the field so do just that. Go take a walk outside or in your garden. He says when we worry about what we are going to wear, look at how God clothes the fields with the beauty of grass and flowers and lilies and they had nothing to do with it. I want to make a suggestion to everyone of you. Go take a walk outside, or go outside and sit in your favorite spot. Look around you. Look to the sky and explain the sun and all that it does. The seasons, the warmth, the planned orbit of the earth around the sun. Did all of that really just happen by chance? Take a look at the clouds in the sky. I just read that the average cumulus cloud weighs 1.1 million pounds. The average African elephant weighs 11,000 lbs so that means that the one cloud above your head is equivalent to a heard of 100 elephants. Think about that! This means that at any given moment there are millions of pounds of water floating above your heads. God did that! Now bring your eyes down to the ground. Have you ever looked at the detail of a dandelion. I hate dandelions, but look at the detail. Look at the flowers in your garden or landscape area. How does that happen? Look at the detail. You can mow off a dandelion today and there will be two more in the same spot tomorrow. Look at the trees that are beginning to bud. Some have flowers that are absolutely beautiful. Some are these tiny little green buds that will produce huge leaves that will fall off the tree in about 6 months for you to clean up. God did that! Robbi has been planting her garden which she loves to do every year. She goes out and rolls in the dirt, digs holes, puts this tiny little seed in the ground, covers it up, and in a matter of months that plant is producing ears of corn with countless seeds on it to eat. Robbi planted the seed and cultivated the ground, but God made it grow.
Jesus asks why do you worry? Do you honestly think that the God who takes care of birds and plants and all kinds of animals will not take care of those that He created in His own image? Do you honestly think that God will not take care of those who He loves so much that He sent His own Son to die for you and for me? Do you think that there is anything that He has forgotten or that might have slipped by without Him knowing? Colossians 1:16-17 says: “For by Him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Did you catch that? All things, in heaven and on earth. That’s a lot of ground to cover. Who can possibly do that? God can! Visible and invisible. Right! Invisible? Who can see if it is invisible? God can! Thrones, powers, rulers, authorities; including Putin, Kim Jong Un, Khamenei, Trump, Pelosi, Schumer, McConnell, the entire congress; God put them in place. Everyone of them. Not only was everything created by Him, it was created for Him and His purposes., and even though it might seem as though everything is out of control, the Bible tells us that He holds all things together.
I like where I am at. I might not like the circumstances that we find ourselves in, but I do like that I am safely in the hands of a sovereign God who knows all things and holds all things securely in the palm of His hand. Jesus says in v.32 that it is the pagans who run after or seek all these things. Does that mean that these things are wrong? No. Jesus does go on to say that your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. The “things” are not bad, but the pursuit, the running after, the seeking of them is. If you think about it, when we seek after these things and put all of our energy into pursuing them only to then realize that we can do nothing about it, we worry. Jesus says do not worry. Do not worry about things that you have absolutely no control over. Jesus told us that our Heavenly Father knows what we need so leave that in His hands. Stop trying to take it away from Him because you can’t handle it.
The cool thing is that Jesus not only tells us what not to do, He tells what we ought to do instead. V.33 says: “But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Pursue, run after, seek His Kingdom and His righteousness first. If you are going to put your energy into anything at all, put it into the pursuit of God. We are told to do that all throughout Scripture and yet we forget or ignore it. Why is that? Why is it that we run after and pursue the stuff when we know that it is going to be difficult if not impossible to get it. When we know that we are going to become weary and exhausted and we worry ourselves to death trying to do something or control something that we can do nothing about? Jesus makes a promise to us. If we will seek Him and His Kingdom and His righteousness first, He will give us the “things” too. All of them!!! He will give you things that you did not even know that you needed because He is the One who knows what you need better than you do.
When you find yourself worrying, stop it. But don’t stop there. Stop worrying and start pursuing. Look for the hand of God in all that is going on around you and stop worrying. You know what? If you seek Him first, He will take care of the “things” too. That’s a pretty good place to be. Ask God to give you the grace and strength to pursue Him and His righteousness!
We miss you and cannot wait to get together again soon. Keep praying for and reaching out to each other.
Jerry & Robbi