But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness,
and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6:33 New American Standard
Bible 1995
This verse comes at the end of
a passage where Jesus talks about the cure for anxiety by reminding the people
to look at nature. The flowers and the birds have everything they need without
worrying about where it will come from. They just do their job, what they were
created to do and leave the rest up to God. They don’t worry or fret or
manipulate to make things happen. Of course they don’t sit around waiting for
food and clothing to come to them either. They do their part and leave the rest
up to God. This is what God expects of us. Worry will not make food grow or
clothes appear. It won’t even add a day to our lives. In fact, it will actually
detract from life. Not only will it cause us to lose what joy and peace we
have, but it can actually cause mental and physical illness resulting in a
shorter lifespan than we could have had. Instead of worrying about what we will
eat or wear, we should seek God. Being like God and serving Him should be more
important than our physical needs. Again this does not mean that we should
spend all of our time reading the Bible and serving at church and not work to
provide for ourselves and our families. The Bible clearly says that those who
do not work should not eat and that we should be diligent to provide. The
principle topic here is worry. We should not worry about what we will have. We still need to do our best to
provide as God has called us to. In some families this would mean that one
person works while the other stays at home to take care of the family. Both are
doing their “job” to provide even though both do not have paying jobs that
bring in money. We need to do our part, seek God and leave the outcome to Him.
If we have the job God has called us to (whether it is to work or take care of
the home), and we are doing our best and seeking His will and righteousness,
then we can trust Him to provide what we need even if we can’t see where it
will come from.
My husband has had a number
of jobs, and at times been unemployed for one reason or another, while I stayed
at home with our family. Things have been tight more than once but we always
had what we needed somehow. Sometimes the money just didn’t run out like I
expected it to, other times people have randomly paid for things that we needed
(without being told we needed them). We trust God, do our part and have what we
need. I have seen other families that are only willing to work the jobs they
want (rather than what they can get) and are not able to provide for their
families, so they resort to providing for their families in ungodly ways
(poaching, begging, stealing, etc.) This is not trusting God or seeking His
righteousness, either because they are not willing to do their part or because
they try to provide in ways that are against God’s will, rather than trusting Him
and doing their part. Part of seeking God and His righteousness is seeking how
He commands that we live and living that way. If we don’t look for it, or are
not willing to obey what we find, we cannot expect Him to provide, nor should
we consider provision through illegal means His provision. We need to do things
God’s way and seek to honor Him in all we do, physically and mentally.
Do you trust God to provide
for you? Do you do your part to provide for your family? Do you seek God above
all else and do your best to live according to His standards? Ask Him to help
you trust Him. Ask Him to show you what you need to do to provide for your
family. Seek Him above everything else and strive to live a godly life.
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