Do Not Worry

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more that food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?....Therefore do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat? Or "What shall we wear?" For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Matthew 6:25-27,31-33

Wow! What a beautiful Saturday morning! It’s 9:00 am and it’s sunny and there’s a warm breeze blowing through the windows of my room. In the distance I can hear the familiar sounds of the infamous flock of wild parrots that inhabit the Tustin area. As I begin to sort through the stack of monthly bills, and not knowing how or which one I was going to be able to pay, all of a sudden, my black cat, Samson, came diving through the open window and running across my stack of bills. His eyes were as big as saucers and his heart was racing a mile a minute. As I held him to calm him down, I looked out the window and saw what had caused poor Samson’s trauma. The infamous flock of parrots were in my backyard eating the fruit off of our lemon and tangerine trees. They were under the trees just squawking up a storm and enjoying their breakfast of fresh fruits. As I sat staring in awe of this site, the Holy Spirit put this morning’s passage Scripture to mind. I have to tell you that I began to laugh and say “God You truly are awesome! In front of me was a stack of bills and I had no idea how I was going to pay them and truthfully I was stressed to the max, I mean I was at my breaking point, then what does God do? He brings in a flock of birds who are not native to California and He is using the fruit trees in my yard to feed His parrots. What an awesome lesson to be able to see and experience!

As I sat there praying and praising God for teaching me this wonderful lesson I realized that worrying and stressing over my current situation wasn’t going to change a thing. However, if I diligently sought God and His righteousness that everything was going to work out. Just as God knew that His parrots needed the fruit in my backyard, God knew that I needed a way to pay my utilities, house, and car payments. As I began to grasp and understand this an amazing sense of peace came upon me. He reminded me that my wife needed finances so she could go to India on her mission project, and He made sure the money was there, and then He reminded me my daughter Emily needed major money for college and He blessed her with a scholarship. So if He met these daily routine needs wouldn’t He take care of all daily routine needs? And the answer is Yes of course He would. So my brothers and sisters, just remember to diligently seek God each and every day, and just as He fed His parrots with the fruit in my yard He will make sure to take care of everything in your life, whether it’s the routine daily things or the extra-ordinary things that come in your life.

The other exciting promise we find in their passage of scripture is that Jesus will give us peace in all the situations we face. Wow, how incredible is that?! When faced with troublesome situations, Jesus promises to give us peace through it, as well as the ability to overcome it. How? Because He has overcome the world. Now, the peace that Jesus gives is "perfect", and it will also "guard", and "protect" our hearts. Just as the Apostle Paul wrote about in Philippians 4:7, "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." This true peace comes from knowing that God is in control, and our citizenship in heaven is assured, and our destiny is guaranteed, and finally, we can and will have victory over sin.

So, let us truly embrace this concept of true peace, because we know that Jesus dwells in our hearts, and He has overcome the world, and we, too, will overcome it, because of Him.

Pastor Rick

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