Why We Worry – Part V
Scripture Reading: Matthew 6:25-34
Key Verse: Matthew 6:25 NLT
“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?”
Let me remind you again of Jesus’s words in Matthew 6:33 NLT:
“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.”
The evil one often suggests that following Jesus means losing out on many pleasures of life. Jesus never taught that, and it is not true in the lives of His followers.
When a person decides to ask Jesus into their lives, two things happen inside them.
First, God forgives their sins and removes sin from them as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).
Second, the Holy Spirit comes into their mind and heart, giving them a new lens through which to see the world. Things that seemed important no longer seem so. Things that brought them happiness no longer do. People who have Jesus in them can still sin but they never enjoy it like they used to.
Look what Matthew 6:33 NLT promises us:
“… He will give you everything you need”.
In the seventh chapter of Matthew, Jesus adds:
“So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him.” (Matthew 7:11 NLT)
When a person asks Jesus into their life, they do not live a life deprived of good things. Based on these scriptures, that the only thing that our Father says “no” to are those things that He knows harms us.
The subtitle of these first seven devotionals for the month is “Why We Worry”. There is only one basic answer. We worry because we think that God will not give us something that we want. That line of thinking does not fit into the abundant life that Jesus died to give us.
The Bible teaches us that God is “all wise”, thus He is the only one that can really see what things will bless us and what things will eventually harm us. So, if God does not give us something that we really want, we can relax and know that, if we could see what God sees, we would not want it.
I know that you want to live your life without worry, fear, and anxiety. You can, but it depends on your trust in God’s goodness, wisdom, and ability to turn bad things into good things for you (Romans 8:28).
The devil never stops tempting you to worry, so resist these thoughts and claim God’s promises to care for us!
Father, I believe in Your goodness and wisdom. Help me to defeat thoughts of fear and worry. I want to live the abundant life. It is in Jesus’s Name I pray, amen.