…do not worry about your
life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you
will put on. —Matthew 6:25
{CHAMBERS} “Jesus summed up commonsense carefulness in the life of a
disciple as unbelief. If we have received the Spirit of God, He will squeeze
right through our lives, as if to ask, “Now where do I come into this
relationship, this vacation you have planned, or these new books you want to
read?” And He always presses the point until we learn to make Him our first
consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion. “…do not worry about your life….” Don’t take
the pressure of your provision upon yourself. It is not only wrong to worry, it is unbelief; worrying means we do
not believe that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it
is never anything but those details that worry us. Have you ever noticed what
Jesus said would choke the Word He puts in us? Is it the devil? No— “the cares
of this world” (Matthew 13:22). It is always our little worries. We say, “I
will not trust when I cannot see”— and that is where unbelief begins. The only
cure for unbelief is obedience to the Spirit.
The greatest word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon.”
{ELGIN} What are you most worried about? Money? Health? Relationships? I find the greatest threat to my contentment
is not problems with any of those things.
It’s letting the flame of faith dim in my life. One way we fan the flame is through our
relationships with other Christians. We
have gained some wonderful friends as we have sojourned for Jesus over the
years. One couple significantly
impacted, in a positive way, how we respond to adversity. Their motto for living is “We live simply so
others can simply live”. They have stood
against the temptation to build bigger barns and, instead, show the world Jesus
by the way they live and do. I see so
many Christians look to the world, their unsaved friends, for comfort and
assurance. Jesus walked among sinners,
but He did not partake in their sin.
That always proves to be a little harder to do for most Christians I
know. We are not to live in isolation from
the world, but are to live insulated from it.
A fish lives in the sea of salt water but is not salty. In the same way we should not allow the world
to “season” us with sin. What appears to
be reasonable can draw you away from the Lord and before you know it … you are indistinguishable
from those who are lost. Listen –
sinners prefer that you participate in their sin. It affirms in their minds that what they are
doing is not so bad .. and you, as a Christian, are not so good – just like
them. This is a huge problem for
teenagers … and those who find themselves alone facing life’s problems … trying
to fix themselves rather than look to Jesus.
I have a recipe for scones
that people really like. If I decided to
use other ingredients, the scones would not taste the same. God has ordained how His creation best
functions. You can follow his plan or
come up with your own recipe. Trust me, it won’t taste the same. Wanting to go on our own way .. not trusting
that God knows what is best … it all started in the Garden .. it’s part of our
old nature. And that old nature is
always ready to rise up and dominate our thinking and our doing. You are reading this so I sense you are
looking to God on a consistent basis.
Encourage other Christians to do the same. To follow God’s recipe then taste and see ….
(Psalm 34:7-9) “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear
him, and he delivers them. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the
one who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who
fear him lack nothing.”
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