Today I get
ambitious. I am going to write about eleven verses that go together,
Matthew 6:24-34.
“24 No man can
serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the
other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye
cannot serve God and mammon. 25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no
thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what ye shall drink;
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more
than meat, and the body more than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls
of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into
barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better
than they? 27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his
stature? 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29
And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God
so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is
cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little
faith? 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or,
What shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For
after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly
Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye
first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things
shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no
thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the
things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
That’s a big bite
to chew on. Fortunately Jesus is talking about one subject from many
angles. You can’t serve God when you’re serving your bank balance
or pleasing people for the purpose of acclaim. To serve God you have
to keep your mind on the things of God to the exclusion of the cares
of the world. If you are fraught with fears of the political climate,
or you worry about the economy instead of doing the work that God has
given you to do, then you are not serving God. You can’t do both.
The fact that it is possible to live in the world and not fear, fret
or worry about things is made evident in the lives of the few who
have done so.
I am not talking
about some monastic withdrawal from society, it is possible to be in
the world and not of the world. There is the trick to serving God. If
you want to connect to the presence of God in your soul, don’t
drive Him out with worldly cares. But if your goal is to live the
most luxurious lifestyle so other people will envy you, don’t waste
your time pretending to love God.
People have a
tendency to fear what they do not understand, and fear breeds hate
and worry. You have to make the conscious choice to trust the One Who
made all that is. If you trust Him, you won’t fear the unknown,
because you know He is aware and able to take measures necessary to
see you through. If you chose to do all these things for yourself,
and the other hand, you don’t trust Him.
Jesus’s conclusion
is most eloquent. I paraphrase, “Don’t go borrowing trouble from
tomorrow. You got enough trouble today.”
There, that wasn’t
so bad. Jesus said it all and I merely put modern words on it. Next
time I will start on chapter seven.
Ol’
Fuzzy is not employable and was denied for disability benefits. The
only thing I have is the blogs. But I don’t qualify for ads on the
blogs until September. If you like the scribbles I post, please help
me keep it going. You can leave me a gratuity by dropping a buck or
two in Ol'
Fuzzy's Tip Jar. This is a PayPal account I opened on Wednesday,
April 5, 2017.
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