Do Not Worry

Day 22

Do Not Worry

Jesus’ words on this mountainside, they sound like good advice, like a comforting mantra to live by, but Jesus isn’t giving us advice or a mantra to chant: He’s giving us eye surgery! Jesus is declaring… change the way you see! He is operating on the way we human beings view the world because we’ve been seeing it all wrong all along.

Since the fall we humans usually live in a world with a scarcity mentality. We feel like there’s not enough to go around, so we feel we have to hustle, grasp and struggle for our own survival. This is the survival mentality of orphans- of children with no-one caring for them.

But we are not orphans.

Jesus has spoken of God as our Heavenly Father thirteen times so far in this sermon on this breezy hillside and now, in these passages about anxiety He calls God our Father two more times bringing the total to fifteen.

Jesus’ message is pretty clear… God is our Heavenly father. We are not orphans having to hustle, beg and grasp to scrape by. God is our generous loving, attentive Father who wants to provide for us. Abundantly.

He wants our deep loving connection with our Father to reshape our vision of this world and ourselves in it. Jesus is saying to us…’Change the way you see!’.

‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?’

Matthew 6:25

My family and I here in the UK have been in transition for over a year and a half. God had raised up a team in Jamaica to carry the work there forward and then He called us to come to the UK to partner with Him in what He is doing here, whilst also supporting the team in Jamaica. When we left Jamaica we had no idea where we would be living. The sale of our house in Jamaica was still completing when we left so as the airplane wheels touched down on UK soil we had no idea where we’d be living and no means to find somewhere.

I sometimes feel like living by faith is like being a trapeze artist. You’re flying through the air being caught by strong arms and then flying through the air again and you never know quite where those strong arms will be. But they are always there.

Since we arrived we have stayed with family, at a Christian retreat centre and then in temporary rental accommodation. It has been amazing how seemingly seamlessly each of our accommodations arrived just as the other was about to finish. When one real estate agent learned we were in a temporary rental accommodation he said “Wow, they’re rarer than a Hen’s tooth to find!”. God’s strong arms have provided all we need. But though I have seen this, there are still days when I know these words of Jesus are for me.

It has taken us now a year and a half to find our more permanent home. Finally recently we found somewhere that looked like it would be perfect both for us as a family but also as a ministry base. But it was above our budget. We made two lower offers and both were rejected. So for two weeks we prayed.

One morning David, my husband was praying about the house and he sensed God challenge him, ‘You don’t have what you need for the house? So be generous. Give a financial gift to another ministry’.

David was obedient to what he sensed God was saying. He didn’t tell me about it that day. But the next day, without knowing about this I read in my morning devotional time…

“Remember this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written:

‘They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures for ever.’

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.’

2 Corinthians 9: 6-15

I remember thinking to myself as I read it, ‘well God, that’s just like you. We don’t have enough money and your answer is for us to be generous! But isn’t that just your Kingdom way!’.

Soon after, David made us both coffee and brought them through and we both talked about what God had been sharing with us in our devotion times. With startled surprise we discovered it had been the same thing! Eye surgery! You don’t have enough? So be generous!

That moment David decided to phone the real estate agent back about the house, somehow confident that God had made a way. As the real estate agent answered the call she said “Oh, you must have a sixth sense, I was about to call you! The vendors have found a house they want to buy right away and want to invite you to make another offer”.

After negotiations they accepted a lower offer, and even though it felt like more than we could afford, when we looked at our account we actually had just enough!

Jesus used this experience to do eye surgery on David and I… which is really actually heart surgery!

Open your eyes! Your God is faithful, generous and good! Open your heart and live in the reality of this Kingdom of God. God’s good, beautiful and generous Kingdom. The Kingdom of your Father.

Jesus wants this deep loving connection with our Father to reshape our vision of this world and ourselves in it, ’Change the way you see!’ He is saying, ‘You don’t need to worry. Trust your Heavenly Father.’

‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?’

Matthew 6:25

In the coming verses after this one Jesus will point His listeners back to the beauty of creation to remind them of God’s generous abundant presence all around them and the message of abundance and generosity written in everything He has made.

If you feel like you don’t have enough. Open your eyes to your Heavenly Father’s presence and the abundant goodness of His Kingdom. And be generous!

Change the way you see!

Explore Further…

 

Journaling The Journey 

What do you worry about?  Make a list.

It is not a coincidence that this scripture is placed just after a challenge about money. Much of our desire for wealth comes from an underlying anxiety about provision and well being. Will we be okay? Will our family be okay?

Without God in the picture we can feel vulnerable.

What does it mean for you to live in the reality of Jesus’ words “Do not worry”.

What affects your ability to trust Him for your whole life and well being?

Today’s mountainside photograph was taken at Glen Coe in the Scottish Highlands.