And All These Things

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

- Matthew 6:33

First, let's get some context, what are "these things?" At this point, Jesus is talking to His disciples about worrying. Do you ever worry? I sure do. I'm even worried about how this post is gong to turn out, worried about who will even read. I tend to be quite the worrywart. Jesus is talking specifically at this point about clothing and food, telling His disciples that He will take care of it, but I think this idea extends beyond just that.

What things do you worry about? I worry about what people think about me, I worry about where I am going to college, I worry about what my job is going to be, I worry about who my wife will be. I spend a lot of time worrying about these things. This presents a major problem. It has been said that all that Satan needs to succeed is for good men to do nothing. Let me tell you, when you spend a lot of time worrying, it's unlikely that you'll be doing anything worthwhile. Worrying takes up precious time that we could (should) be spending with our Saviour. It denies us indispensable opportunities to share Christ's love with other people, it disallows us to carry out the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20).

When things are uncertain, when life crops up unanswered questions, our first instinct is to worry about it and try to figure out how to fix it ourselves. Jesus says this approach is flawed. Seek first the His kingdom then these things will be added to you. Jesus wants us to trust in Him, to do His work and to focus on Him. He can take care of the little things (though they might seem big to us) in our lives. He wants to use us for greater things than figuring out how to fix ourselves. Fixing is His specialty and He could probably do a better job of it if we stopped ripping apart His work and patching it with our own roll of duct tape.

Are there worries in your life that have taken your focus off of your Saviour? Write them down, ask God to take them, give them up. Pray about as often as you worry about it, ask a friend to pray for you too. Step into the fullness of what God can do with you when you aren't wasting time worrying.