Jesus here literally tells us not to worry about the most basic needs of life. Specifically, don't worry about your basic needs in the future, because your heavenly Father will provide them. Yet I know that I am still supposed to be a wise & good steward of the money I receive, as well as be a provider of my family, lest I be viewed as an unbeliever (1 Tim. 5:8). I love this passage, yet it is so hard to think through properly and to live out biblically. As a young married couple, just starting out paying my own stinking bills, saving, tithing, etc, these things are on my mind more than ever. Should I get life insurance? What is the best way to save my money for a house? Do I need to own a house? Should I start saving for retirement? But more important than my job, my paycheck, my distribution of my (ahem, God's) money, is my trust in my God. Yet if I am to not worry about my most basic needs 1, 2, 5, 10 years from now (according to Matt. 6 above), yet I am supposed to be a good steward of money and a provider for my family (1 Tim. 5:8), where should my wise planning end and my trust begin?
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Tension- Worry vs. Wise Planning
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."
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Okay. Now you have me thinking about this. My first reaction is that it is not an either/or scenario but rather a both/and. You are to trust God to lead you and to seek Him in your planning. And in your trusting, look for His plan. He will lead you in ways that are right and teach you so much along the way.
ReplyDeleteAlso this passage of Scripture does not say, do not consider what to wear or eat. It says, Do not be anxious.
Seek FIRST, most importantly, to the kingdom of God and to be right in His sight. I think of kingdom as the king's domain. Seek to live under His domain, and set your heart and mind on Him. He will lead and provide. It's so easy (and sometimes subtle) to seek something else first besides God Himself, even good things! Then we're seeking the righteousness of the world or our own standard of what is successful. But we can have goals, as long as loving, knowing, trusting and pleasing God is our number-one goal and love. Just don't use that goal as a measure of righteousness, maybe. Hmm.
Thankfully when we seek other things, His Spirit convicts us, and we can confess and have Him help us to keep our eyes on Him once again.
Okay. Bedtime. Keep asking good questions. "Call to me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things you do not know," or something like that.
I didn't mean seek first "to" the kingdom of God...take out the word "to."
ReplyDeleteJust thought of something else.
ReplyDeleteTrust in God to provide. He does not send your clothes down from heaven, but He does provide ways for your needs to be met. Okay. Bye.