Toil. Work. Strive. Get ahead. Make more money. Have more, and want more. The world pushes us on, and we succumb to its siren call until life becomes a vast empty void of desire instead of the gift God intended. With that enormous empty void to be filled, worry puts down deep roots. When worry takes residence in our thoughts, we lose the spiritual understanding that the void can never be filled with the things of this world. It can only be filled with His presence.
In Matthew 6, Jesus explains how much God loves and cares for us. “If God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need” (Matthew 6:30-33, NLT).
The Lord knows our needs. When He died for our sins, we received a new nature—His righteousness. It was not a partial gift. It was complete work. We received all the resources of our new Father. Understanding this truth is so hard for the human mind to grasp. But when we are transformed by consistently putting on the new nature, our thinking changes. Our perception changes. We see with His eyes. As we draw closer to Him, He becomes more important than any need, whether actual or perceived. We believe that He provides beyond what our natural minds can imagine.
My father was a Quaker, and he was taught that simplicity of life was something to be sought. Although God provided everything my father needed financially, he realized that joy and fulfillment were not to be found in what you owned. There were only found in who you were in the Lord. One of the last things he told, Christina, his nurse, was “Jesus saves.” He left this life the way he came into it—with nothing. But he left a gift to his family that could never be lost—a legacy of love and faith.
Seek the presence of the Holy Spirit. Draw Him into your empty void until the things you think you need are no more. The stock market may plunge or peak. Circumstances may whirl beyond comprehension. The government may play political chess, but you will remain secure in His love. Have faith that He has already supplied all you need. Jesus lived a life of simplicity of grace, yet left us filled with the richness of God. It is as simple yet as rich as that fact. Believe and trust in Him.
© 2019 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2019/01/believe-and-trust.html
No comments:
Post a Comment