Intermission: the two things

I am feeling a little like Jude today. I sat down to continue in our study of Mark and just couldn't focus on it. The fact is I just have a lot on my mind and heart today. I am feeling a little overwhelmed.

When I am feeling overwhelmed I like to think about the Sermon on the Mount. I particularly like to focus on Matthew 6:25-34

"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 important than food, and the body more important 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? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies 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, O 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.

Jesus' message is simple, "Do not worry."

"Simple! Simple!," you may be yelling at me right now, but yes "simple." The fact is we expend a lot of energy worrying about all kinds of things that we have no control over. We get stressed out over all kinds of things. Money, sex, food, money, sex, traffic, money, sex, house repairs, money,ect... and on and on it goes. (The reason I kept listing money and sex is because psychology tells us that they are the two things that people worry and stress out about the most.)

Jesus tells us that there is an answer to the problem of worry. "Seek first..." The simple answer to dealing with worry is to put first things first. The fact is when we worry rather than seeking God first, we are expressing doubt in God's plan for dealing with the things a head of us. When we focus on God first we will find that these other things in our lives that are fighting for our attention don't seem to matter as much anymore.

Are you trusting in God's plan and provision for you? Philippians 4:6 says, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

The fact is when we focus on God, we will be forced to see ourselves in light of who He is. When we do this we will begin to see how blessed we really are. This my friend is the simple way to handle your worry.

An old man once told me that there are two things you should never worry about. First never worry about anything you can control because the situation is in hand. Second he said that we should never worry about anything we can't control because there isn't anything we can do about it anyways.

May you seek God in your moment of worry and bring all things to His feet and leave it there.

P.S. God loves you!