Some days I feel like I talk too much. On days like this when I have been writing every single day of the month so far, I just want to stop talking!
I don’t have that many ideas and I don’t feel all that smart…some days I feel downright dumb!
Time to pause
So today, let’s just pause for a few minutes. Here are some words from Jesus…probably spoken on a ridge of hills not far from Capernaum, if my study Bible is correct. He introduced the Kingdom in Matthew 5-7…telling the people what it was, what it looked like and how it contrasted with the religious leaders of their day. Not surprisingly, the religious leaders hated what He had to say!
Sometimes talking about growing up…even going through the process of growing in new areas, gets downright overwhelming!
That’s when we need to turn to Jesus. He isn’t about the great job we are doing with our lives…or even the mess we’re making. He just wants us to realize that we can’t do the christian life ourselves. Whether we are self-sufficient or stoics, we can’t do life on our own. I know it sounds unamerican, but it’s true! At some point, we need to come to the end of ourselves!
…to remember that we need Jesus…desperately!
We need to realize we can’t do life on our own. WE NEED JESUS! We need His grace to forgive, to desire to do the right thing, to want to think of others above ourselves…to love genuinely. So today, I’m leaving some of His words here.
Let’s think about them…be challenged by what He is talking about…and change…by His grace. Isn’t it comforting to know that He will care for us. He isn’t just concerned about our spiritual lives, but all aspects of our lives…everything!
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink;
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food,
and the body more than clothes?
Look at the birds of the air;
they do not sow or reap or store away in barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not much more valuable than they?
Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes?
See how the flowers of the field grow.
They do not labor or spin.
Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field,
which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire,
will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’
or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For the pagans run after all these things,
and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:25-34
