Bible Verse of the Day Tuesday January 12th 2021

Matthew 6:25-30 “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 than food, and the body more 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?  Can anyone of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers 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-you of little faith?

Worry and stress are a part of life, it varies in its severity, but we all deal with it at one time or another. The primary question is not will we experience stress; what is in question is how we handle it. Although stress and worry are a part of life, we do not have to make it a way of life. If we genuinely believe the beautiful promises of God in His Holy Word, it will bring us freedom beyond human comprehension.

As human beings, we sometimes have uncertainty about whether our Heavenly Father cares about the little insignificant problems that cause us to worry. In the song “Consider the Lilies,” there is a line that says, “He really cares when your head is bowed low,” and as sure as there is sunrise this morning, you can count on that. 

We experience worry and stress because we are trying to solve problems that we cannot handle independently. There is a parable about a Cardinal and a Robin perched on a phone wire above a busy street. The Robin turns to the Cardinal and asks: Why do these humans hurry around and worry so? The Cardinal responds, “I guess they do not have a heavenly Father who loves and cares for them as we do.” 

In verse 27 of the text today, God asks, “Can anyone of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” The answer to this is a resounding no; we cannot add any time to our lives just like there are some circumstances that we are incapable of changing. Including the problems of our lives that we think cannot be solved. God loves us and is in control of the universe and our lives as well. Consequently, there is not a single reason for us to worry about anything.

When we worry, we are saying to our Lord and Savior that we do not believe or trust that He will or can do anything to bring relief to our hurting souls. In the Bible, there are numerous promises that He does care, loves us, and is ready, willing, and able to take care of all of our needs, but sometimes there is still a lingering doubt.

A man took a great fall on a construction site and landed on a huge pile of soft sand. He escaped with only a few minor bruises and praised the Lord for that pile of sand that saved his life. When the paramedics were taking him to the ambulance on the stretcher, he said I only have one request, and that is, please do not drop me. That is how it is in life; we trust God for our salvation, but we do not trust Him for our everyday problems. In other words, we trust Him for the “big fall,” but we don’t trust Him for the “little falls.”