Consider the Lilies of the Field
Jesus continued his sermon on the mount, God’s revelation about living life in the kingdom of the King of Kings. Life in Christ is diametrically opposed to the kingdom of this world. The kingdom and kingdoms of this world will soon come to naught… they are here today and gone tomorrow. However, life in the spirit of the living God liveth and abideth forever. The things of this world will soon be past, only that which is done in Christ shall last.
In Matthew 6:24 and following Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Jesus said, you cannot serve worldly riches and God at the same time. The motto of the United States is “in God we trust.” There is irony in this American motto inscribed on our coins and currency. The irony is that most Americans trust in Money as their god instead of the Lord God Jehovah. The the great American dream is to pursue money and the things money can buy instead of pursuing God.
How do you worship God instead of material things? The pursuit of happiness is not in seeking the blessing, but in seeking the Blessor. Jesus continued in Matthew 6: 25 and 26: “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
It’s easy to be distracted by the cares and the things of this life. Worry over the physical things that sustain our mortal bodies drive men to anxiety.. Doubt, worry, and fear separate our hearts from the pursuit of the Lord. However, as Proverbs says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding, In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. God is our sufficiency…. He is the one who provides all our needs.
God has given us the resources of this world and has called us to steward the things with which he has entrusted us. We’re called to administer with our hands the the material goods he has proved for us and then minister with a heart of love the relationships that he has called us to nurture. These things include: our work, our time, and our money. We serve with a heart of love our wives, our families, and our brothers and sisters within the body of Christ.
When our heart is set on the things of the world, when is enough enough? Worldly. things cannot satisfy…. There is a constant craving, an insatiable appetite and a continuous hunger for the material things that we cannot obtain…. The world says, “He who dies with the most toys wins”. However, from God’s eternal perspective, He who dies with the most toys…. Is dead. You can’t take it with you.
Despite the cares and concerns of this life, Jesus knows our every weakness. He also knows what we really need. Paul asked God three times to remove his painful thorn in the flesh. He said, Lord, I’ll serve you better without this constant suffering. The first two times God did not answer. The third time, God answered Paul’s prayer, but it was not the answer that Paul expected. However, this is one of the great lessons of life, learned only through suffering, pain and tribulation. God’s answer was, “My strength is made perfect in thy weakness… My grace is sufficient for thee.”
God is blessed when we endure the pain, the hardship and the testing with a singing spirit. There is nothing in this life that God can’t handle. God is the God of grace… he alone is our sufficiency.
Jesus said, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Live in the present… all you have is now. Our joy is in the Lord. It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. A Sabbath day’s journey was the distance you could walk in one day according to Jewish law. The Christian’s journey is walking with the Lord one step at a time and one day at a time.
The concept of the “denarius” was a day’s wage. This was enough pay to keep a roof over your head, and to keep your family fed and clothed. It wasn’t enough to store up a “rainy day fund” for tomorrow. Jesus said, I’m your sufficiency for today…. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of the things for tomorrow. Your responsibility is to live in today’s day-tight compartment… Walk with me on today’s sabbath day’s journey. I am your sufficiency and your strength for today’s walk… todays Journey.
As Americans we are taught the pursuit of happiness. However, Jesus taught that joy in the Lord supersedes happiness. Happiness depends on circumstances… upon happenstance…. However Joy in the Lord is everlasting for he said, “I shall never leave you nor forsake you.”
Joy is not the absence of pain, rather, Joy is the presence of the Lord. According to Romans 8:35-39, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In him we live and move and have our being… The Lord takes care of the sparrow and the lily of the field. Will he not therefore, also take care of you… as children of our loving Heavenly Father? He is our sufficiency in all things…
… that we may live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
