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 than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 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? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 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? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
What worries us? What do our minds repeatedly wander back to? What keeps us awake at night? As we are mired in our concerns we have tired ourselves to be released, and what is the result? Isn’t there always a next thing? After we have taken care of whatever it is that has worried us, isn’t there always something else?
What do we need in order to have true and everlasting peace in our lives? What we need is the actual peace of God that is able to change our spirits, to change our souls into a different spirit and soul that attains the peace that can elude us. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Family and Friends, whatever it is that troubles us will pass. People are born stained by original sin and yet, through Jesus, even that can change. The death of our physical bodies is inevitable, but not so our eternal souls. To this day mankind seeks to overcome the consequence of original sin (death). From pride death begins and through pride it continues. Death has not and never will be overcome by our efforts. (Ephesians 2:8-9) Yet we are not inescapably doomed, at least not spiritually. The death of the body gives way to the eternal life in the spirit. (2 Corinthians 5:8) So why do we worry most about the shortest part of our lives and neglect the eternal part? If we have something to eat and drink, if we have clothes to wear, and if we have shelter to sleep in, we have enough for this physical body. The list is simple, but the variety of options is vast. In these varieties and options we torture ourselves.
Jesus asks us “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mark 8:36) Family and Friends, why do we chase the fleeting as we flee from what pursues us.
Peace and happiness in this world is a pile of leaves that gets scattered by even a soft breeze. True and lasting peace is found in the spirit, but not any spirit, but only from God, who is Spirit. (John 4:24, 4:16) Finding the peace this world offers is temporary and circumstantial. Nothing physical brings permanent peace. However our spiritual God the Father has given us Jesus His Son to bring permanent peace to us. (John 14:27, 16:33) He brings us from enmity with God to peace with God, and only He can. (Romans 5:10)
Jesus said that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all that we are, and to love each other. (Mark 12:30-32) Family and Friends, if we do that, we have peace with God and man. In that we have peace. Peace is not hard to have and not hard to find as God gives it freely through Jesus our Savior and Lord. Thank you Jesus! Thank you God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.”