Do Not Be Anxious

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?^[g] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

³⁴ “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matthew 6:25-34

Wildflowers

Hope in Jesus. It’s what we all need. Decisions, both big and small, seem hard in todays world. So much more is at stake than before because of the tragedy, natural disaster, sickness, and also hardship from bad decisions. It’s hard not to make a decision based on fear. However, our decisions should be based on our hope in Jesus, His grace and His return, and our eternity in Heaven with a good God. If our faith is based on that hope, then all the little decisions would be so much easier. We may say no to things that don’t really matter regardless of what people say and yes to things that do matter in spite of being a little afraid. It’s hard to live out my faith with a hope like that.

My daughter asked this weekend how these wildflowers were planted. She couldn’t wrap her mind around how they could just pop up every spring. I explained to her how the seeds in the flower blow off and land in the ground and then stay there until next year when it’s time for them to sprout again. I forgot to remind her that God planted them. They are part of his creation and He is in control of them unless we make the decision to spray them or cut them down. He planted them and makes them grow for us to admire them and to feed the bees, which in turn makes all of our plants grow. This is an example of God growing something that doesn’t toil or spin. He just takes care of them for our good because He is good. This should give us hope and confidence in His goodness.

That same day, we finished planting our garden. It took 2 days with 3 people working to replant the garden and we still have to set up our watering system and plant a few more plants. God created plants and even dirt and He will help our plants grow through the sun and the rain, but the harder we work to keep up with the garden, the better it should produce. This is an example of God helping us grow something, but we must toil and spin in order to see fruit. He helps us for our good because He is good, but we have to put in the work too.

Either way, God is ultimately in control. There is no amount of labor we can do to change His plan and there is no place we can go to keep our family safe all the time. The only thing we can do is pray and trust Him that He is good and that He will take care of us for our good. We have to hope in the Lord and his provision and protection and mostly in the hope of the glory of Jesus Christ. We should not be anxious for tomorrow because God takes care of the wildflowers, so won’t he take care of you?