Luke 12:24-27 “Take the carefree birds as your example. Do you ever see them worry? They neither grow their own food nor put it in a storehouse for later. Yet God takes care of every one of them, feeding each of them out of the abundance of his love and goodness. Isn’t your life more precious to God than a bird? Be carefree in the care of God! “Does worry add anything to your life? Can it add one more year or even one day? So, if worrying adds nothing but actually subtracts from your life, why would you worry about God’s care of you?” Today's verse reminds us that worrying doesn't do us any good. It doesn't add time to our lives, but it could subtract time. How much time are we wasting worrying? We know it doesn't help, yet we feel we can't help it. God can help us, we just need to ask. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Be Carefree in the Care of God!
Luke 12:24-27 “Take the carefree birds as your example. Do you ever see them worry? They neither grow their own food nor put it in a storehouse for later. Yet God takes care of every one of them, feeding each of them out of the abundance of his love and goodness. Isn’t your life more precious to God than a bird? Be carefree in the care of God! “Does worry add anything to your life? Can it add one more year or even one day? So, if worrying adds nothing but actually subtracts from your life, why would you worry about God’s care of you?”
This is a verse that we often hear when we talk about how God will provide for us, and we don’t have to worry about anything. There is a lot in these short verses. First, it tells us to take the carefree birds as our example. We don’t ever see birds worry about where they will get their next meal or if they will be able to eat that day. They don’t grow their own food; they don’t store food. Each day, the bird goes out and looks for what it will eat that day. If it has babies in the nest, it will look for food to feed them every day as well. However, they don’t seem to be worried if they will find food.
What I read in this verse that I don’t remember seeing before is that it says, “Yet God takes care of every one of them, feeding each of them out of the abundance of his love and goodness.” I am not sure if I haven’t seen that before because that is only included in this translation or if I just never noticed it before. However, I think it is a really good thing to think about. God feeds the birds out of the abundance of his love and goodness. Did you know God had an abundance of love for all of His creatures?
This world tends to operate from a scarcity mindset. The world teaches us that we should get what is ours now before it runs out. We should strive to make more and more money because what if we don’t have enough for all we need? When we approach things from a scarcity mindset, we won’t be grateful for the things we have because what we have will never seem like enough. When we approach God with a scarcity mindset, we may think He does not have enough for us. That might be enough love, enough provisions, enough mercy, enough grace. Whatever it is that you think you need.
I like how this verse reminds us that God doesn’t scrimp together all he can to provide for us. He provides for us out of His abundance and His goodness. God will not ever run out of provisions for us. He won’t ever run out of mercy, grace, or love for us, either. God has an abundance of all things. Next, the verse says, “Isn’t your life more precious to God than a bird?” If God is providing for the birds every single day out of His abundance, don’t you think He will provide for you, too? Humans are God’s greatest creation. He likes us the best. If He is making sure the birds don’t go without, then He is making sure you won’t go without, also.
The last part of the verse says, “Be carefree in the care of God! “Does worry add anything to your life? Can it add one more year or even one day? So, if worrying adds nothing but actually subtracts from your life, why would you worry about God’s care of you?” I think we all know this on some level, and yet we aren’t really sure about how we can change it. The verse reminds us that worry won’t add anything to our lives. It won’t add another year or even one day. So, if it adds nothing to our lives, why do we do it? I think we do it because we live in a society that trains us to worry. All of the news that we watch on TV is designed to get a reaction out of us. It is designed to make us worry so that we will keep watching it. It is also designed to keep us worrying so we will vote for a certain candidate, or vote a certain way on a bill, or anything else they want us to do.
Even advertisements have capitalized on the fear, worry, and anxiety of our world today. When people are trying to sell us something, they tell us how bad life will be if we don’t buy their product. Instead of leading with all the good things their product will do, they lead with all the bad things that happen if you don’t buy the product. I was listening to one of my life coaching teachings the other day, and they said fear of the consequences if people don’t change is a much stronger motivator than the positive rewards they will get when they do change. The world is full of fear, and yet you don’t have to be. You can learn to trust the Lord and know that He will protect you. He will provide for you. He will always come through for you. God has an abundance of love for you that you can count on.
Lastly, something I don’t know if we realized is what it says about worry adding nothing but actually subtracting from your life. How does worry subtract from your life? How many times have you missed out on important moments because you were stressing about something instead of enjoying the moment? How much of your life has been taken away because of panic attacks? When you look back over your life, can you see places where worry or anxiety has stolen your joy, taken away some fond memories, spoiled some great times?
I know trusting in the Lord is hard; isn’t being anxious all the time hard, too? I will never forget the first time I heard someone from the personal development world say to me that life is hard. Change is hard, not changing is hard. If it is going to be hard either way, which way makes it worth the hard? Would you rather it be hard and yet you are happy, or would you rather it be hard and you be miserable? I know it seems like we don’t have much choice in things, but that is a trick of the enemy. He wants us to think we are stuck where we are. He wants us to think we can’t change. He wants us to think we have to be worried and anxious all the time. This is a lie! You can find freedom from this worry and anxiety. You can find ways to trust the Lord. You don’t have to live an anxious life. The Lord will provide you with all you need; we just have to ask and then trust He will answer.
Dear Heavenly Father, please bless all those listening to this today. Lord, we don’t want to worry, we just don’t know how not to. Please help us. We want to trust you completely. We want to believe you won’t let us down, but we have been let down so many times by those around us. Lord, please show us how to trust you. Please give us the strength to believe that you will always be there for us. Fill us with hope, Lord! We are tired of this worry and anxiety, please take it from us and replace it with the peace of Christ. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you are really struggling with trusting the Lord, check out my book Total Trust in God’s Safe Embrace. Each chapter is a different way that I built up my trust in the Lord. You can get a signed copy from my website, or you can also find it on Amazon. I also have a book coming out soon called Abandon Anxiety. I will let you know when that one is out as well. If you would like to read it before it is published, I can send you the pdf version of it. Just reach out to Catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com. I am happy to send it to you ahead of time. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in May 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Turn to me for life. Help my people see that they will not find life in the dead words that the world gives them. They will only find life in me.”