Focus
Experience silence in the midst of your busy day. Take some time to relax into a time to be with God.
Read
Luke 12:22-31 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
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.
Reflect
Don’t let the sweet images of birds and flowers fool you: this passage is a powerful sermon for people like you and me, who are encouraged at every point to worry about every thing.
Turn on your TV, or scroll through your Facebook feed: it’s a Pandora’s box of worry upon worry. Moment by moment, we are invited (and encouraged) to be concerned about our skin, our weight, our health, our nutrition, our kids, our marriages, our aging parents, our money, our retirement, our safety, our schools, our government, our elections, our environment, the weather, our nation, and the world.
Did I leave anything out?
Advertisers and news outlets elevate our anxiety levels, and then offer “solutions:” relief from all that worry in the form of more things, more services, more medications, more politics, more barely-relevant information: more of all the stuff that’s got us worried in the first place!
To this group of people for whom extreme anxiety is a part of daily life, Jesus says, “DON’T WORRY.” It’s not a suggestion: it’s a command.
And if that sounds impossible? Well, apart from a radical re-orientation of our lives in Jesus, I suspect it is.
Pray
Lord,
Help me to surrender more fully to You
all those parts of my life
that fill me with worry.
Help me to see You at work—
not just in birds and flowers,
but in my life, too.
Teach me to trust You in all things.
Amen.
Go with God!
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