Luke 12:22-31 “He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well." This episode talks about how God doesn't want us to worry and that He will provide for us all that we need. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Do Not Worry About Your Life
Luke 12:22-31 “He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well."
Wow, I am always struck by how powerful these verses are. No matter how many times I hear them I am still moved by them. They are so simple and yet so profound. Like much of the Bible they contain so much in a few verses. The Lord is constantly telling us not to worry about our life. Why is this so hard for us to do? Or not to do I guess? Why do we feel we need to worry about everything? Many of us don’t want to worry. We feel as though if we had a choice we certainly wouldn’t choose to worry. So, why is that our go to? Why are we so anxious all the time? Why do we worry so much? Why is it so hard for us to trust that God will take care of things, take care of us?
This verse brings up a lot of really good points that we may not usually think of and yet if we did, it may help us to worry less. The first thing it talks about is that we don’t have to worry about what we will eat. It then asks us to think about the ravens. They don’t have a kitchen full of food. They don’t have a pantry that they can go to each day to get food out of. Each day they go out and get enough food for that day. They don’t worry whether they will find food or not. God gives them all the provisions they need for that day, one day at a time. If He is making sure the birds are fed, why wouldn’t he make sure we are fed. We are His beloved children. If we make sure to feed our children, why do we doubt that God will make sure to feed us? Did you know that when God was providing mana for the Israelites in the desert, he provided just enough for that one day. When they woke up there was a substance on the ground called manna. This was what they ate. God provided just enough for that one day. If they tried to take extra for the next day they would wake up and find it had spoiled and worms were eating it. They had to trust that each day God would provide their meal for that day. We could use some of that trust in our lives today.
This next line is one that I just love. The verse says, “And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest?” I love this because it points out to us how useless our worry is. What are we gaining by worrying? Are we adding hours to our life by worrying? No, I would argue that we are subtracting hours because the time you spend worrying is time not being spent on fully living. You cannot fully be living in the present moment if your mind is distracted by all your worrying. Also, worry and stress are not good for your body. It may take time off your life by causing health problems if you are constantly worried or stressed about things. Did you know that 90% of what we worry about doesn’t even happen? We worry about things that might happen, and most of the time they don’t happen. I have a secret for you, if they do happen, you will have plenty of time to worry then. If your worrying can’t change the outcome, if there is nothing you can do but worry, then why worry, you will have time to worry if it does happen.
The next line says, “Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!” I find it interesting that He mentions they don’t “toil or spin.” When talking about the ravens He said they don’t “sow or reap.” I find it interesting that He points out that they are not doing anything and God is providing for them. Maybe it is just my interpretation, but what I hear God saying here is, “We don’t have to earn our food or our clothes.” God does not take care of us and give us provisions because we do all the right things. In both cases above he is saying that they don’t do anything and yet He provides for them. It also points out that if He does that for the flowers and the birds, how much more would He do for us. This is a recurring message that God keeps pointing out to me over the last few months, maybe longer and I just didn’t notice. He keeps telling me, “you don’t have to earn my love, you already have it. I will take care of you regardless of whether you deserve it or not. You are mine and I am yours. I don’t need anything from you, I don’t need you to do anything for me. I just want you to BE with me.”
The part of the last line that I am not a fan of, and yet God says on more than one occasion in the Bible and Jesus seemed to say often when He walked the Earth is “you of little faith!” It seems no matter how many impossible things we see God do, or the disciples saw Jesus do, we struggle to believe He will do them for us, or that we can be His instruments. We worry about all these things that God said He will take care of. We worry that we will have enough food, even though God tells us right here in this verse that we don’t have to. We worry that we will have enough money to buy clothes and God is saying, I’ve got you. You don’t have to worry. Why does He have to keep saying “you of little faith?” When will we learn? When will we trust? What do we have to do so that we can hear him say, “you of great faith?” This is what I am longing for, this would be my one wish if I met a genie in a bottle. I would wish that I could have the faith of a mustard seed that God is always talking about.
The Lord gives us an answer to these questions of why we worry in the ending of this verse. “ And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” We worry because we are striving for the things of this world. We are stressing over worldly things instead of spending our time striving for the Kingdom. God tells us right now that if we spend our time striving for the kingdom, then he will take care of everything else. I know this to be true because I have seen it with my own eyes. My parents have always strived for the kingdom of heaven. Even when they were teenagers, which is a time when a lot of us struggle with the church and following the rules, they were striving for the kingdom. They would go to daily mass together sometimes as teens. They would go to Sunday mass together. When we were growing up they often had to rely on the Lord for food and clothes as I am one of 11 children and although my dad had a great job, it is expensive to raise 11 children.
I wish I could say that my parents never, worried, but they are human, so this is not the case. However, even while worrying they still prayed and relied on the Lord. They always kept their eyes fixed above and the Lord always came through. We never went hungry and we always had enough clothes. We would get bags of clothes dropped off at our door because everyone knew we didn’t have a lot of money. I swear the Lord would perform a miracle of multiplication every time my mom would cook. She would use 2 cans of tuna to make tuna melts for all of us and wouldn’t run out of tuna. I would watch her cook and think that there was no way that would be enough food for all of us and then we would always have left overs. There is not a doubt in my mind that God provided for us in a supernatural way and I there is also not a doubt in my mind it is because my parents kept their eyes focused on Him and even though they did worry sometimes, they always knew He would provide.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we don’t want to worry, please help us not to. Please help us to hear these words today in a different way. Please help them to penetrate our heart and our mind and for us to understand what they mean. Lord, please give us a supernatural understanding of what you are saying with this verse. Help us to trust that you will provide all we need for any circumstance. Please help us to have more trust and more faith. Help us to also understand that we don’t have to be perfect, we don’t have to earn your love or your provisions. All you want from us is to be with you and to keep our eyes fixed on you and not on those things of this world. Help us to do this Lord. We want all of this, we just need your help to make it happen. We are weak and you are strong. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Please help us to do all things Lord. We love you so very much and we are so grateful that you provide for us even though we don’t deserve it. We ask all this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Have a blessed day!