Nem csak kenyérrel - Jocelyn Gracza 2017.05.21. (English version)
For those of you who use Facebook, you are familiar with the Memories Function. On Wednesday of this week FB reminded me of a post from the same day 2 years ago. Matthew 6:27. God knew two years ago what I would be thinking on today.
This is another testimony of God’s care and provision.
Matthew 6:25-27 So I say to you, Take no thought for your life, about food or drink, or about clothing for your body. Is not life more than food, and the body more than its clothing?
See the birds of heaven; they do not put seeds in the earth, they do not get in grain, or put it in store-houses; and your Father in heaven gives them food. Are you not of much more value than they? And which of you by taking thought is able to make himself a cubit taller? A recent survey reveals we spend 6.5 years of our lives worrying.
If we live until our 80’s, we will have lost 6 ½ years to just being anxious.
That breaks down to about 2 hours and 15 minutes of every day. Women worry 60% more than men. Men are the most anxious between the ages of 20-24, women from the ages of 15-19. Both men and women are the least anxious between the ages of 1-4.
However, in this passage in Matthew, the Lord is very clearly telling us: “Don’t Worry, be Hopeful.” Even the world gets this message-remember the popular song “Don’t Worry-Be Happy”?
From Matthew 6:25 to 34 Jesus says “Don’t worry” three times!!! It is a very straight forward message. There is no point to it!! Don’t do it! “Ne csináld!!”
Worry serves no purpose-Jesus promises to meet your needs, BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU!!
- Recent teaching in tini about the love of God for Man.
- He walked in the Garden with Adam & Eve
- He enjoyed them, had a personal relationship with them
- Chose not to destroy them when they failed, rather made a way back to a personal relationship with Him “Mert ugy szeret Isten a vilagot”
The root meaning of the word “worry” is to be pulled apart. God wants us to live lives of Hope and Fulfillment. He is telling us, “Leave the day to day stuff to me.”
Why do you think that the least “anxious” period of our lives are between the ages of 1-4? Because as children, WE TRUST OUR FATHER AND MOTHER TO PROVIDE FOR US!
The little and big issues of our lives are able to be handled by our Father. Let Him. "And which of you by taking thought is able to make himself a cubit taller?"
I have just returned from the states where I spent a month preparing my father for death and then an additional month caring for my mother after his passing. My father was still trying to control every aspect of his life, even his dying, by being anxious that it all go the way he planned. I reminded him that it wasn’t Death that was coming for him, rather the Lord. At a given date and time set by Him. Nothing my father did would change that time.
What could we do with 6 ½ more years of life?
- Go to college-get an undergraduate degree and Masters
- Go to medical school, become a doctor
- Travel almost 30 times around the Earth
In preparing for my testimony, I asked several unsaved friends their thoughts on worry.
- One said that it would be unnatural to not worry
- The second friend said that she just traded one set of worries for another, first for her children, now for her grandchildren. Her life is bound by worry.
What makes our lives as Christians different from the world? Verse 32 of Matthew 6 "Because the Gentiles go in search of all these things: for your Father in heaven has knowledge that you have need of all these things"
The love of the Lord, the teaching of Jesus, the faith that He will provide and care for us.
Verse 33b of Matthew 6 ends with a promise: "But let your first care be for his kingdom and his righteousness; and all these other things will be given to you in addition."