Genesis 15:1-6; Hebrews 11:1-16; Luke 12:22-34
After teaching His disciples to pray, Jesus spent a little time explaining the proper perspective of worldly possession to them. He summed it all up by telling them to not be anxious and not to worry about their needs while in this world. “Seek His kingdom,” He said, and the things that we need for this life will be taken care of. There’s no point to worrying about them and being anxious about them is counterproductive. He reminds us that it’s all beyond our control anyway. He puts it in a simple and straightforward statement: “Do not be anxious about your life.” But anxious we are.
Wouldn’t it be great to embrace Jesus’ call to set aside our anxieties about earning money, paying bills, providing for the needs and wants of our families, achieving financial security, maintaining health insurance, saving for education, and the host of other things that loom large in our lives? Sadly, we’re more likely to think of His call to not worry about such things as idealistic and impractical than we are to see it as a genuine call to the life He has crafted for us. We are so captive to the world’s perspective that we must make our own way in life and the philosophy of “if it’s going to be, it’s up to me” that surrendering control over our well being to the providence of God strikes us as bordering on irresponsibility. We can’t see how simply trusting in His provision is going to take care of things. We are people, as Jesus put it, “of little faith.”In contrast to our illusion of being in control of our lives and circumstances, Hebrews 11 sets before us the reality of having all that we need for this life and for eternal life. Over and over again, this passage punctuates that it comes to us “by faith.” Through the examples of those who have taken God at His promises and lived by faith, we are encouraged to set aside our impotent, worldly ways and take hold of the power of the faith that lies dormant in us. Jesus shows us the key to unleashing that power by pointing us away from our possessions, our money, our abilities, and, especially, our very selves to the object of true faith. “Your Father knows what you need,” He assures us. Then He explains, in so many words, that “the God who is for the birds and who crafts the flowers is the God who has crafted you and is for you.” He assures us that we are of greater value to Him than the birds of the air or the flowers of the field, so much so that He Himself took on human flesh to live and die in order to provide us with our greatest need. “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom,” He announces with joy. Anxiety and worry must flee in light of this, for the God who is for the birds is also and so much more for us.
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