Daily Bread
So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. - Matthew 6:31-34Last week I was really worrying about finances. So on Sunday I rose early and took my worries to my heavenly Father. I realized that I needed to choose to trust (to have faith) in God’s promises in dealing with worry. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. - 1 Peter 5:7 Then God reminded me of Matthew 6:33.
Through the years I have had to make choices about whether to put God first or to try to pursue meeting my needs. When I first decided to follow Christ, I travelled around the country after college pursuing my desires, but had a hard time finding a good job. God told me to go back to Rhode Island and get back involved with the people who had introduced me to Christ so I could grow deeper in my relationship with God. I had been looking for a job for months and had never had trouble finding work before, but had no success finding work. As soon as I moved back to RI I had two job offers in two weeks.
Years later when Lynn and I got married, we choose to put our children first once we began to have them by having Lynn stay home and not work. We understood that loving our children and raising them in a caring, stable family environment was very important to God. A month after we made that decision God gave me a new job increasing my salary 50%.
As I talked to God about my worries, God spoke to me through Matthew 6:34. Do not focus on tomorrow, but focus on helping the people around you today. I spend much of my time trying to figure out what I am going to be doing in the future or how I am going to get work in the future. But God wants me to focus on what He is doing through me today to help other people. When I am focused on trying to figure things out and what I want, I miss out of what God is doing in other people’s lives and the opportunities to help them.
When we focus on serving others and doing God’s will one day at a time, He will take care of providing what we need tomorrow. When we know God will take care of what we need, it frees us up to give ourselves away to others to meet their needs. Each day we do God’s will and he gives us our daily bread (what we need for that day).
Labels: Prayer, Priorities, Provision
