Take No thought, what you shall eat or drink...
Oswald Chambers Challenged me today to take no thought for my life; what I will eat or drink, or what I will wear.
It is easy to think that God doesn't understand, or that my cares are not really concerns or worries. Am I truly to take no thought at all? How literally should I take this instruction: Take no thought for your life...
Not too literally, I should think. I have to take some thought. I have discovered poor planning costs me more money, time and stress. Responsibility means considering in advance what I am feeding my family. I do not think this is what is meant. Jesus, when he was preparing for the last supper, instructed his disciples where and how to find the room and the meal they were to share.
Once again I turn to my children to learn these lessons. It is said that unless we have the faith of a child we cannot enter the Kingdom of God. So I watch them, and they rarely give much advanced thought to what the next meal is going to be. Only when their little tummies ask first.
I dare say they don't give any concern at all to whether or not there is going to be food in the house. Red flags are raised if a child is obsessed with whether or not there will be food. The secure child gives no concern to these things.
When we brought one of our little ones home at the age of 2 yrs old he did show signs of being concerned over the next meal. He would eat 6 bowls of cereal for breakfast for fear that would be his last meal. It took him a solid 6 months, if not more, to be retrained that the next meal was coming. And even longer than that before all signs of concern had disappeared.
The Real Estate market has been really tough the last two years. We have 8 mouths to feed in an all-commission business. No salary for real estate agents. Yet I can testify that our Heavenly Father knows our every need, and meets them accordingly. I would like to testify that I never worried. But I can testify that I learned that worrying does not speed up God's timing. I don't always like His timing. More often than not He waited until the 11th hour to provide. Multiple times I received food on the day we ran out, or paid a bill the day something was to be turned off.
Why does he wait? Because he wants us to know that He is Jehova Jireh: our Provider.
Take no thought for life because I am Jehova Jireh.
Let the attention we focus on our sustenance be given to Him. Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you as well.
This is not to say we should not pray for our daily bread. Even Jesus, in the model prayer, prayed for daily bread, did He not? He also said that man does not live on bread alone, but on doing the will of the Father. Take no thought means that our central focus is not the bread we eat but the Bread that is from Heaven...
It is easy to think that God doesn't understand, or that my cares are not really concerns or worries. Am I truly to take no thought at all? How literally should I take this instruction: Take no thought for your life...
Not too literally, I should think. I have to take some thought. I have discovered poor planning costs me more money, time and stress. Responsibility means considering in advance what I am feeding my family. I do not think this is what is meant. Jesus, when he was preparing for the last supper, instructed his disciples where and how to find the room and the meal they were to share.
Once again I turn to my children to learn these lessons. It is said that unless we have the faith of a child we cannot enter the Kingdom of God. So I watch them, and they rarely give much advanced thought to what the next meal is going to be. Only when their little tummies ask first.
I dare say they don't give any concern at all to whether or not there is going to be food in the house. Red flags are raised if a child is obsessed with whether or not there will be food. The secure child gives no concern to these things.
When we brought one of our little ones home at the age of 2 yrs old he did show signs of being concerned over the next meal. He would eat 6 bowls of cereal for breakfast for fear that would be his last meal. It took him a solid 6 months, if not more, to be retrained that the next meal was coming. And even longer than that before all signs of concern had disappeared.
The Real Estate market has been really tough the last two years. We have 8 mouths to feed in an all-commission business. No salary for real estate agents. Yet I can testify that our Heavenly Father knows our every need, and meets them accordingly. I would like to testify that I never worried. But I can testify that I learned that worrying does not speed up God's timing. I don't always like His timing. More often than not He waited until the 11th hour to provide. Multiple times I received food on the day we ran out, or paid a bill the day something was to be turned off.
Why does he wait? Because he wants us to know that He is Jehova Jireh: our Provider.
Take no thought for life because I am Jehova Jireh.
Let the attention we focus on our sustenance be given to Him. Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you as well.
This is not to say we should not pray for our daily bread. Even Jesus, in the model prayer, prayed for daily bread, did He not? He also said that man does not live on bread alone, but on doing the will of the Father. Take no thought means that our central focus is not the bread we eat but the Bread that is from Heaven...
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