Tuesday, Sept. 29 - Matthew 6:19-33

[Tek7]

"Don't collect for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don't break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness—how deep is that darkness!

"No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money.

"This is why I tell you: Don't worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky: they don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you worth more than they? Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don't labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! If that's how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't He do much more for you—you of little faith? So don't worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Source: Matthew 6:19-33, HCSB

There are times when Bible verses can be difficult to understand on a first reading. We need to study intently, use reference materials, and, most importantly, pray for understanding while reading Scripture. A quick glance simply won't cut it when it comes to comprehending some verses.

Matthew 6:33 is not one of those verses. "Each day has enough trouble of its own" is one of those phrases in Scripture that seems so obvious that we wonder why we ever forget it.

But forget it we do. We worry about our lives. We collect and we arrange and we plan, all toward the end of living in comfort and relative safety. We strive for financial security, offering our time, meditations, and efforts to our bank accounts and trying to appease our personal economies as though they were capricious local deities.

This verse isn't recommending fiscal stupidity. We are to work hard, bring tithes and offerings to God, pay what we owe, spend wisely, and provide for our families. But that doesn't require worrying.

Even before medical research told us exactly what stress was doing to our bodies, human beings knew that worrying wasn't any good for us. But how else is the average person supposed to live in the modern economy and not worry about money except trust Christ?

I chose this verse as much for myself as for our Verse of the Day Forum readers. I have an interview for a job tomorrow and it's difficult not to worry about it. I've been unemployed for 16 months now, even after applying for countless positions, following up, and trying to establish the relationships so important in finding work. It's been a frustrating time and it's difficult for me to grab on to verses like Matthew 6:33. But my situation doesn't change Scripture and it doesn't mean that worrying is going to make me any taller.

Faith is easy enough when circumstances are good. It's easy to believe that financial calamity won't reach us when our bankroll is large. But it's in the trials of life when our faith grows most quickly. It's almost always a difficult process, but that's all the more reason to cling to passages like Matthew 6.

 

[the_great_eskimo_pie]

Good luck in ther interview Tek.

Thanks for the reminder.