Matthew 6:25 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 important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single cubit to his stature? 28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Causes of Anxiety
If I had a whiteboard up here and asked you all to brainstorm about the various causes of stress in our lives, what kind of a list do you think we would get? Probably a list of common troubles, right? Relationship problems, health problems, work load, not enough money, etc. We have been studying verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount, and in the closing section of Matthew 6 Jesus gives us a list of the causes of anxiety. And in this list we discover something very shocking – anxiety is not caused by trouble. Nor is it caused by suffering. Jesus shows us here that all the causes of anxiety are inside our own hearts. Nothing that happens to you causes anxiety. (If it did, how could Jesus command us not to have anxiety, since we cannot control what happens to us?) Anxiety and worry and stress are caused by your heart. They are the reactions of the heart to circumstances. So really there is no such thing as a stressful circumstance. There are hard circumstances and easy circumstances, but no stressful circumstances, which is why the exact same circumstance can result in anxiety some times and not other times. The issue is the condition of your heart. And that is great news because if stress were caused by circumstances, that would be outside of your control. But this passage is the greatest instruction ever written on dealing with stress, and it says nothing about manipulating circumstances or fleeing from hard things. It is all about the heart. I titled this sermon “Stress-Free Suffering” to highlight the fact that suffering is not the cause of stress – the heart is. If your heart is as it should be then suffering will not cause sinful anxiety.
Jesus gives us seven causes of stress. But here is my advice: Instead of writing them all down and trying to get it all, try this – try just listening for which ones are applicable to you. Not everyone with anxiety has all seven of these causes, so if you have a problem with anxiety just listen for which one or two or however many of these may be the culprit in your heart. I will go fast through the first three because we have already covered them the past few weeks.
1) Treasure on earth
When you store up treasure on earth (you have some earthly, temporal thing that you feel you have to have in order to be happy), you will automatically have anxiety when that thing is threatened or taken away or when that thing fails to make you happy. And since earthly treasure is notoriously vulnerable to loss and notoriously unsatisfying, having earthly treasure is guaranteed to cause anxiety. Correct that by emptying your earthly treasury.
2) A low view of God
You do not really think of God as being either powerful enough or loving enough to take care of you. People like this say, “We planned our picnic for Saturday, so I’m sure it will rain” or “With my luck, I will probably hit every red light.” Think about what you are saying when you talk that way. Just because you have a particular desire, God will probably do the opposite … and for no other reason than to make you suffer? If you have that kind of twisted view of God, Jesus directs your attention to God’s care for the creation. No one can think that way about God if they look thoughtfully at how God cares for the birds and the flowers. If the Creator cares for the creation how much more will the Redeemer care for the redeemed?
3) A low view of human value in God’s sight
If you have a low view of that, you will worry, so Jesus draws our attention to how much more important we are to God than the birds and flowers. If you worry about things you just do not understand the power of the love a parent has for his child.
4) A low view of the Kingdom (Running for the Gatorade)
When you forget that you are a citizen of the kingdom of God, and you become focused on earthly things, that is like a marathon runner who forgets about the race and becomes focused on the Gatorade. Money and possessions are not the finish line. They are just the provisions you need to finish the race. If you are focused on the race – the kingdom of God, then if God calls you to some ministry, and you realize, “Man, I need some transportation to carry out this ministry,” and God gives supplies you with a cheap, reliable car, you will be thrilled. But if your focus in on cars and He supplies you with a cheap, reliable car you will think God is punishing you or something. But if you think a lot about those kingdom goals, you will be reminded that God put you here for a very important reason, and it will become obvious to you that if God put you here for that important reason of course He will supply all the little things you need to accomplish that purpose.
Priority
So what does it look like to seek the kingdom first? That word first does not mean first in a series; it means supremely. It is not that you seek the kingdom first and then other things second; it is that the kingdom is first in everything you do in life. The only way to overcome stress is to set His kingdom as your supreme purpose. So if you ever have to choose between some earthly provision like food or money, and some kingdom purpose, you choose the kingdom over physical needs. And even when that choice is not forced – when you can carry out the kingdom purpose without giving up the temporal thing, still, the kingdom remains supreme in your thoughts, affections, desires, etc.
One way to test where the kingdom is in your priorities is by looking at how easily trivia can pull you away from eternal matters. What does it take to get you to skip your devotions? What does it take to get you to miss church? Your attitude about the church is a very important measure of the level of kingdom priority in your heart because the church is the most direct experience we have with the work of the kingdom. It is not the only aspect of the work of the kingdom. Your job is part of your kingdom assignment. So is your family, and even your recreation. Everything we do we are to do for kingdom purposes. So I do not mean to say that the church is kingdom work and everything else is not. But I do mean to say that the church is the primary headquarters for the work of the kingdom, and by far the greatest kingdom priority. I think that is unarguable in the New Testament. There is far greater emphasis in the New Testament on ministry within the body than there is on things that take place outside the church.
And I think most of us would say, “I’m committed to the church. I’m here every Sunday unless something major comes up.” But you can tell how much of a priority the kingdom is by your definition of “something major.” For some people there are two possibilities – either they are in the emergency room or they are in church. The kingdom transactions that take place here on Sunday morning are so valuable to them that hardly anything ever arises that is worth sacrificing what they have to sacrifice when they miss a Sunday. So they just do not miss. They think, “Yeah, doing that thing would be great, but it’s not worth missing the grace that comes from my small group praying for me, the ministry of the Word, joining the chorus of voicing exalting the name of Christ in song, being used by God to administer grace to the saints through my spiritual gifts, etc. All that is priceless, and so I’m not willing to sacrifice it for this other thing.” Other people will miss church at the drop of a hat. “Oh, I couldn’t make it Sunday because we have company … coming… on Thursday, and Sunday morning is my only chance to get the house ready.”
“I couldn’t leave the house – there’s a centimeter of snow … predicted …. in the mountains.”
This is getting to be a bigger and bigger issue as our culture no longer honors Sunday as a day of worship. It used to be nothing happened on Sunday. Now the culture has decided Sunday is a perfect day to schedule events. So you spend tons of money getting your kid into some sport, and now they have games on Sunday morning. What are you going to do? What are you going to teach your kids about the relative importance of sports vs. church?
Here is another practical test: If something is going to keep you from church ask yourself, “If this were on a Monday instead of Sunday, would I skip work for it?” Or “Would I pull my kids out of school for it?” Examining what it takes to keep you away from church is a useful test in exposing whether or not you are seeking the kingdom first (supremely), or if the race takes a back seat to the Gatorade.
That little word first is a huge word, isn’t it? Take that word out and no one would have any problem with this. We do not have any problem seeking the interests of the kingdom of God once our interests are all squared away. That is what they did in Haggai’s time. The Temple of the Lord was in ruins and they were fully intending to fix it up – but not until after they got their own homes squared away.
Haggai 1:4 Is this a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while [the LORD’s] house remains a ruin?
Their affairs were a higher priority than God’s house. And as a result, instead of blessing them financially God did the opposite.
6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."
That is the result of seeking first your own kingdom. If you join the pagans and run after earthly things – be ready to run the rest of your life because you will plant much and harvest little, invest a lot, get a little return, work hard and get a tiny paycheck, eat, but never become satisfied, your wallet will seem to have a leak – none of your resources will be enough. And worry will dominate your life.
5) A high view of self (Self-reliance)
OK, so those are the first four causes of anxiety that the Lord gives us:
1. Having treasure on earth
2. A low view of God
3. A low view of the value of the saints to God
4. Failure to seek the kingdom as the supreme priority in your life
Now let’s take a look at verse 27 for the fifth cause of stress: self-reliance.
Matthew 6:27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his lifespan?
That question is designed to draw our attention to our own inability to do anything about the stuff we are worried about. Worry is a sign that you are trusting in your own resources. And trusting in our own resources always causes anxiety because we do not have any resources. When you feel like you need to do something but you do not have what it takes for that thing to be done, obviously that causes anxiety. So ironically, one of the solutions to stress is to simply remember that you are absolutely inadequate for any task. The more you realize your own bankruptcy the less you will be inclined to trust in your own resources. If you stop looking to yourself as the solution to your problems then you will not be so stressed out over the fact that you do not have a solution.
The hyperbole of “cubit”
And Jesus has kind of a comical way of saying that. The word translated hour in verse 27 is actually the word “cubit” – which was a unit of linear measure. A cubit is eighteen inches. And the word translated lifespan is halikia (?????a), and can mean either maturity or physical stature. For example, in Luke 19 Zacchaeus…
Luke 19:3 wanted to see who Jesus was, but because of the crowd he could not since he was small in stature (halikia).
But the word halikia can also mean age, and so most translators assume that Jesus must be using cubit in a figurative way to refer to a span of time, not literal height. They say that because adding time to your life seems to fit the context better than increasing your height. And because Jesus speaks of this like it is a very small thing. (You cannot even add one single cubit – making it sound like a cubit is nothing.) Adding a half a yard to your height would not be a very small thing. That would be a huge thing, so most people take this as a figurative way of saying, “You can’t add a segment to your lifespan.”
And certainly that is a possibility; however I am not convinced – for two reasons. First, even though halikia can refer to age, when it is used with a word like “cubit” I think the most natural understanding would be to refer to stature. As a general rule I do not assume something is figurative unless it does not make sense if you take it literally. But I think it actually does make sense if you take it as satire. It is just like the next section where Jesus talks about having a log in your eye. It is a comical image designed to make a point. Jesus is using humor to show us how utterly unqualified we are to be in charge of our own wellbeing.
Powerlessness disqualifies you
Imagine you are working for a publishing company that is coming out with a new English translation of the Bible, and it is your job to hire the general editor. So you begin your first interview and you ask the person: “What kind of skills do you have that would qualify you to be the General Editor for an English Bible translation?”
“No hablo ingles.”
If he cannot even speak English then he is not even close to being qualified for this position. And that is us in verse 27. There we are, sitting at His desk applying for the job of overseeing the sustaining of our own lives, and Jesus begins the interview this way:
“You want to be the one in charge of your own wellbeing? OK, I’ll start with something really, really basic. Can you, by worrying, make yourself a half a yard taller?”
“I could put on some high heels, and a really big hat…”
Or a kid might think, “I could just grow for a few years.”
But Jesus did not say add eighteen inches by growing; He said by worrying. Jesus looks at the crowd and says, “Raise your hand – which one of you is such a good worrier that you could go home, sit down at your kitchen table, worry, and stand up and be a foot and a half taller? And they all laugh. And Jesus says, “If you can’t even do that little, tiny thing, obviously you are not the right candidate for this position of sustainer of life.”
So I do think Jesus meant “cubit” in a literal way. It is an intentionally ridiculous picture for the purpose of making the point emphatic. Jesus takes something that for us is ridiculously HUGE, but for someone qualified for the job of caretaker of life would have to be very small, and shows us how unqualified we are for this job.
Another reason why I think this is the right interpretation is because of Luke 12:26.
Luke 12:26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
What is the rest? Sustaining your own life. Jesus’ argument is, “If you can’t even do the little thing of adding a cubit then you certainly can’t do the big thing of sustaining your life.” But if adding a cubit means adding to the length of your life, then I do not see how one is big and one is small. It does not make sense to me to say, “If you can’t even do the little thing of adding to the length of your life then how could you do the big thing of sustaining your life?” Those are the same thing.
So that is my rational for my interpretation – but I am definitely in the minority. You can decide for yourself. But either way the point is the same - you are utterly disqualified for the job of preserving your own life and you need to step down immediately. You should tender your resignation as sustainer of your own wellbeing because you are SO under-qualified.
Worrying does not even work
The only skill we have going for us is our ability to worry, and worry does not even work. It does not accomplish anything. There is the old joke about the guy who said, “Don’t tell me worrying doesn’t work. I know for a fact it works, because none of the things I worry about ever end up happening.” That joke and Jesus’ words make the same point – whatever is going to happen or not happen will happen or not happen regardless of whether we worry about it. There are some people who would have to admit that the hardest thing you have ever had to face never even happened. And the only reason you faced it was because you worried about it. If you had not worried about it you would never have had to face it because it was not part of God’s plan.
6) Trouble Greed (resisting God’s pace)
So what are the causes of anxiety? They are all in the heart.
1) Having treasure on earth
2) Having a low view of God
3) Having a low view of how much God treasures His children
4) Having a low view of the Kingdom (so you’re running for the Gatorade)
5) Having a high view of self (Counting on your own resources for the solution to your problems and then getting stressed out because you don’t have any resources)
Now look down at verse 34 for #6.
Tomorrow’s pain is off-limits
Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
If you are worried about something that might happen tomorrow, you are borrowing some of tomorrow’s pain and suffering it today. Worrying about the future is probably the most irrational thing we ever do, because worry is anxiety about the possibility of future suffering. But if tomorrow’s suffering is going to be so horrible, why voluntarily suffer it today? The worrier is in essence looking at today’s suffering and saying, “No, that’s not enough. I’ve got to have more! Give me today’s suffering and tomorrow’s – I have to have it all right now!” It is trouble-greed. And so Jesus says, “No. You have enough suffering right now – you can’t have anymore. You have to wait until tomorrow for tomorrow’s suffering.”
On the other hand, there is something in tomorrow that you can have today. Tomorrow’s pain is off-limits, but God has granted us full, unrestricted access to tomorrow’s joy. You are not permitted to jump the gun on suffering tomorrow’s pain, but you are allowed to sneak ahead into the future and jump the gun on enjoying the wonderful things that God has promised will be there. The biblical word for that is hope. Hope is the exact opposite of worry. Worry is when you feel pain today because of tomorrow’s hardship; hope is when you actually feel happiness today because of tomorrow’s joy. Suffering tomorrow’s pain ahead of time is forbidden, but we are allowed to enjoy as much hope as we like, just so long as it is hope in the Lord and not hope in anything else. So tomorrow’s pain is off-limits, but tomorrow’s pleasure is fair game. Worry harms you spiritually and makes you less godly; hope improves you spiritually and makes you more godly. So the enemy works hard to get you to live a tomorrow-centered life – or a yesterday-centered life. He knows God’s grace is available today, so the more he can do to get you not to live a today-centered life more he can destroy you.
When people get to the end of their rope and plunge into depression, most of the time it is because of the pain they see coming tomorrow. If all they had to deal with were today’s pain, they could handle it. Most of the suffering of this life is borrowed from tomorrow, which is foolish because…
• It might not even happen
• If it does happen then you will have to suffer it twice instead of once
• The suffering of worry is almost always worse than the actual trouble itself.
We all know anticipation of suffering is worse than the actual suffering.
So here is how this works: You have some huge problem facing you right now. It is massive. You cannot ignore it. You do not have the option of saying, “Oh, God didn’t call me to deal with this” and walk away. It is on your plate, it must be dealt with, it is your responsibility, and you have no idea how to solve the problem. Take a minute and just ask yourself this, “What portion of this problem belongs in today?” Does God expect you to get the entire thing taken care of today? If so, then do it. But if not – if it is something you know you will have to deal with over a period of time, then ask yourself, “Which part of it belongs in this period of time between now and bedtime tonight?” That is all God requires of you. The rest of the problem is off-limits today. And it is amazing when you do that how small today’s portion actually is. And guess what – you have all the resources you need for that portion.
And if you are really burdened, you can apply this same principle to hours, rather than days. What portion of this problem does God want to me deal with between now and sixty minutes from now? What does God expect of me in this hour? And you will find you have the resources you need to make it through this hour. If something later in the day needs some attention right now – some planning or preparation right now, then that belongs in this hour. But if not, then leave it in the future where it belongs, because each hour has enough trouble of its own.
He will go ahead of you
And tomorrow will worry about itself. (And by tomorrow Jesus means the One who is in charge of tomorrow – God.) One of the reasons why it is so foolish to venture off into the future is because the Lord goes ahead of you – just like He did for ancient Israel.
Deuteronomy 1:32 you did not trust in the Lord your God, 33 who went ahead of you on your journey
The Lord went ahead of them. He traveled out in front of them, paving the way for them through the desert. And when they got to the Jordan, across from the Promised Land, and they saw the giants in the land and were afraid to cross over and take what God had promised, this is what the Lord said to them:
Deuteronomy 31:3 The Lord your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will take possession of their land.
God says, “Don’t worry – I will go first, out ahead of you a ways, and you follow along behind Me and by the time you get there you will find I have created a situation in which you will be able to prevail.” God makes the same promise to us. He is traveling right out there about a day’s journey ahead of you. Before anything in the future arrives, it will have to meet up with God before it gets to you. When you wake up tomorrow God’s grace will be there waiting for you. But you do not have that grace now. Remember when we studied the Lord’s Prayer? Jesus permitted us to pray for our daily bread, not annual bread. God supplies what you need for today, but not for tomorrow. That grace will not arrive until tomorrow. His mercies are new every morning.
So as long as you follow along at His pace you will be fine. But if use your powers of worry to transport you into the future you will find yourself in a time where God has not yet gone ahead and paved the way. God is moving at just the right pace – stay behind Him where it is safe. He gave us a large task, divided it up into very manageable little portions, and set up this schedule for us to chip away at those little portions (called “days”). And if you read the label it will say, “100% of DRDA of trouble.” You know how the side of a cereal box tells you what the percentage of the US Recommended Daily Allowance of some vitamin you get in that cereal? Well, here Jesus is telling us that each day is a serving that contains one hundred percent of the divine recommended daily allowance of trouble.
Of course you will not be able to handle tomorrow’s load today. Think about it - even the easiest things in your life would be overwhelming if you added it all up. If you took all the pillows you would ever hold in your hand over the course of your lifetime, and put them all together – it would crush you. (I did the math - if you make your bed every day that adds up to about six tons of pillow-lifting in an average lifetime.) That is overwhelming! Add up all the steps you will ever take, and find out how far God requires you to travel on foot in your lifetime, and your jaw would hit the floor. Even TV. I heard the average man will spend eleven years watching TV in his lifetime. The equivalent of 365 days a year, twenty-four hours per day for eleven full years watching TV. Even that is overwhelming to think about. If God required you to eat your entire lifetime consumption of ice cream in one day you would die.
So just submit to God’s serving sizes and do not go beyond the divine RDA of trouble in a single day. That serving size has been carefully weighed by our Creator and is the perfect size for us. But when we rebel against that serving size and become greedy for future suffering today, we are resisting God’s schedule.
Why do we do that? What motivation pushes us to want to scuttle God’s schedule so we can suffer today’s pain and tomorrow’s pain right now? Any time you reach over from the passenger seat and take the wheel, you do that because you do not think the one driving can be trusted – which brings us to the seventh cause of anxiety.
7) Little Faith
Jesus calls worriers Oh you of little faith in verse 30, and then goes on to say…
Matthew 6:31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things
Worry is pagan
When you worry about earthly provision you are impersonating an unbeliever. They run after those things because they do not have a Father they can trust to care for them. So when we worry we are acting like pagans – impersonating people who have no faith. Worry actually makes sense for them. It makes perfect sense to be worried if you have no Creator or Protector or Father and you are just dangling all alone in an inexplicable universe with no meaning or purpose. That makes sense. But for us worry is irrational.
Hebrews 13:5 … God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
And when Jesus tells us not to do something because that is what unbelievers do, the implication is we are to be different from the world. So ask yourself, “When something painful or annoying or hurtful or irritating or scary happens in my life, is my reaction fundamentally different from what it would be if I were not a Christian?” Is your reaction to hardship and trouble significantly different from what it would be if you were an unbeliever?
Pray with thanksgiving
Or do you follow the advice of Paul in Philippians 4?
Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Your heart will be flooded with inexplicable peace when you pray with thanksgiving. “How can you pray with thanksgiving? Don’t you pray first, then give thanks after God says yes?” No, you pray this way: “God, I’m asking that you grant my request. But whatever You decide to do – if You say “yes” to my request or if You say “no” or “maybe” or “wait” or whatever – I thank You for whatever You are going to do because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it will be what is best.” That is praying with thanksgiving. When you think about how God will only do what is best, and that bubbles up out of your heart in genuine thanksgiving to God even while you are still in the trial – that is when your faith is strengthened and the peace of God takes over in your heart.
So focus just on this hour, or this day, and get through it by faith. Lean on God’s promises. We talk a lot about trusting God for salvation, and we believe all His promises about the Second Coming, the rapture, the resurrection; we trust Him for redemption and the forgiveness of sins. We trust Him in general, but not in particular. We trust Him for the huge things someday, but not the little things right now. So for many worriers the solution is to learn to trust God not just in general but in particular. Learn what it means to trust Him from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Where are the problems in your life? Six in the morning? Noon? Seven-thirty at night? Two AM when you are lying in bed wide awake? Learn what it looks like to cling to His promises and trust Him for a period of sixty or ninety minutes.
God cares even for the little faiths
“Does that mean God will not take care of me until I develop stronger faith?”
No, it does not mean that at all. Notice that Jesus tells the people with little faith that they do not have any reason to worry. You might think Jesus would tell them, “You do have cause to worry, because your faith is so little and weak that God may not take care of you.” He says just the opposite. Even though you do not trust God, God will still take care of you just because you are His child. The babies in the family and the weak and sick in the family will be fed and clothed just as much as the others. Even people who are rebuked for having little faith have nothing to worry about. Little faith does not negate God’s promise to meet your needs; it just destroys your peace. When the Disciples panicked in the storm at sea their little faith did not make the boat sink. It just made the trip miserable.
Conclusion: He knows
So let me conclude by showing you something in verse 32 that can strengthen your faith and make it easier for you to trust your Father to take care of you. I think the last phrase in verse 32 is one of the most comforting things Jesus ever said.
Matthew 6:31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows you need them.
Think of what an exceedingly wonderful thing God’s knowledge of our needs is. Now, I realize for some people that is no comfort at all. If you have a low view of God’s power, or a low view of God’s compassion and mercy, then the mere fact that He knows what you need does not mean anything. You think God just might see your plight and be completely unmoved by it in His heart. Or maybe He will be moved with compassion, but unable to do anything about it.
But if you believe that God is both powerful and good then this is a tremendous comfort. One reason it is such a comfort is the fact that nobody else knows what we need. Nobody knows how much sleep you need. Maybe you can get by just fine on seven hours a night most of the time, but on one particular night you need nine hours. No one but God knows that. Other people might assume you are being lazy, but if it is actually true that on that particular night you need that much sleep – God knows that and therefore He will provide you with nine hours of sleep that night. God knows when you need a break from trouble. God knows when you need a word of encouragement from a friend. God knows when you need something you are working on to be a success. Nobody else knows those things including you. We think we know what we need, but we don’t. He knows when what you need most is a time of hunger. He knows when you really need to go through a desert, and He knows when refreshment is what you need most. He knows when some harsh consequences will be best for you, and He knows when extra mercy will be better. We very often think we need things that we really do not need to accomplish our calling; and sometimes we think we don’t need something and we really do. Only God knows.
God’s thoughts about your needs
And in this context the knowledge of God also implies the thoughts and attention of God. Did you know God thinks about your little needs? It is not just that God has provided by making certain resources available. There is more to it than that. God thinks about your needs. If you need to get from point A to point B but do not have any transportation, God has thought about that. He has paid attention to it. Thoughts have gone through His mind about how much strength you will need tomorrow morning between 9:00 and 11:00.
He thinks about absolutely every detail of every little thing you need. And since He has great compassion and unlimited power and total freedom to act, nothing can prevent Him from acting on those thoughts and supplying everything you need.
1 Peter 5:6,7 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Benediction: Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the deepest darkness, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
