No Worries?

Matthew 6:25 - 26 Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 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?”

Taken on their own, these words can seem a command by Jesus to relax and pay no attention to such everyday concerns as lunch, laundry, a bank account that needs an infusion, or a project that is 20% of a grade. But aren’t these things to which we must attend?

Jesus’ opening word, “Therefore,” points us back to the preceding verse, where he says, “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

When we center our lives on our material wants (as opposed to needs) or getting ahead to gain the security of more possessions in the future, those desires take over our minds and lives. Worry about them can so consume us that we forget our fundamental identity as children of God – people who, as Jesus says, are of great value to our heavenly Father. Living day-by-day in relationship with God allows us to attend to our responsibilities – in school, at work, in friendships or as we tend to our day-to-day needs – in the peace and joy that are gifts from God.

We cannot serve two masters; therefore Jesus calls us to entrust our lives daily to him.

God's peace,

Katie