Read
Treasures in Heaven
(Luke 12.33,34)
19 Don't store up treasures on earth! Moths and rust can destroy them, and thieves can break in and steal them. 20 Instead, store up your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy them, and thieves cannot break in and steal them. 21Your heart will always be where your treasure is.
Light
(Luke 11.34-36)
22Your eyes are a window for your body. When they are good, you have all the light you need. 23But when your eyes are bad, everything is dark. If the light inside you is dark, you surely are in the dark.
Money
(Luke 16.13)
24You cannot be the slave of two masters! You will like one more than the other or be more loyal to one than the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Worry
(Luke 12.22-31)
25I tell you not to worry about your life. Don't worry about having something to eat, drink, or wear. Isn't life more than food or clothing? 26Look at the birds in the sky! They don't plant or harvest. They don't even store grain in barns. Yet your Father in heaven takes care of them. Aren't you worth much more than birds?
27Can worry make you live longer? 28Why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow. They don't work hard to make their clothes. 29 But I tell you that Solomon with all his wealth wasn't as well clothed as one of them. 30God gives such beauty to everything that grows in the fields, even though it is here today and thrown into a fire tomorrow. God will surely do even more for you! Why do you have such little faith?
31Don't worry and ask yourselves, “Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?” 32Only people who don't know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows you need all of these. 33But more than anything else, put God's work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.
34Don't worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself. You have enough to worry about today.
Reflect
Reflections from a young woman with five children listening to the Sermon on the Mount.
. . . It was hard to concentrate and listen to Jesus. My mind was full of worries. There was never enough food. Having enough for today, let alone tomorrow, was always gnawing inside me. I worried. I had trouble sleeping. Getting to sleep, then waking up early.
Here I was listening to Jesus and not weeding the garden. What would my children have to eat? Would the rats eat the little we were able to store at the end of harvest? Would the rain come? Would the crops grow?
Should we sell some more so we could buy the material to add another room to our house for my unborn child and my mother-in-law to move into?
If we go to the temple and we bought an animal to sacrifice to God as the Pharisees told us, would there be enough left for us?
Then something Jesus said cut deep into my heart. “Don’t worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself. You have enough to worry about today.”
What does it mean to be responsible, to plan ahead, to care for our family’s needs, and to listen to this message of God at the same time?
This Rabbi Jesus is saying radical things about what it is to follow God. Can I live and follow Him?
Respond
Jesus, I worry a lot. I find it hard to get to sleep sometimes. I wake in the night. I wonder what it will be like when I get old. The world is telling me to save, to invest, to concentrate on money. Yet you are calling out to me “Don’t worry about tomorrow . . .” Help me to follow you.
Wayne Johnson
Wayne’s passion is working with national leaders from around the globe, helping people develop leadership skills, and seeing them grow personally, spiritually and socially. He is President of World Relief Canada.