Loving parents provide for their children! The last thing they want from their children is fretful anxiety over all the details of family life… income tax, mortgage payments, bank balances, savings, inflation, health and life insurance, grocery shopping and meal preparation, car maintenance and repairs, and the hundreds of other details of family life. I’ve listened to parents describe their concern over a fretful child who seemed to be shouldering the burden for all the things that they did not need to worry about… Their conversation with the child went something like this: “Honey listen, don’t you worry about that! Daddy (or Mommy) will take care of it! I just want you to…”
Well there’s a “Kingdom of Heaven” message a lot like that in many ways found in Matthew 6:25-34. In it the words, “Do not be anxious” in some form appear several times: “Do not be anxious about what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on!” Then additionally, Jesus reminds His followers the “Divine Parent” – our “Heavenly Father’s” loving provision is stressed several times: He “feeds” – He “clothes” – and we’re reminded “He knows we need all these things!” In fact, Jesus reminds us of the Heavenly Father’s provision for “the birds of the air” and his beautiful adorning of “the lilies of the field.”
It seems clear that what our Divine Parent – our “Heavenly Father” – wants us to be concerned about is simply being a faithful, loving, trusting, contributing part of His family – the family of God! He’ll do the parenting – He’ll do the providing and the protecting! His word to us is to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to us [i.e. taken care of]!” (vs. 33)
Hey, take it from me – no, take it from Jesus – what He had to say to us as God’s anxious, fretful children is worth revisiting again. You say, you’ve never been anxious and fretful about the things your Heavenly Father promises to provide? Com’on, I have! I needed to read and hear Matthew 6:25-34 again today – Just as it came out of the mouth of Jesus!
Coffee With The Lord 