What Did Jesus Tell Us to Do?

(Matthew 6:24–26 DKJV) “No one can serve as a slave to two masters; for either he will hate one, and love the other, or he will be devoted to one, and despise the other: you cannot serve as a slave to both God and mammon. (25) Therefore I say to you, don’t be distracted by thoughts about your life—what you will eat and drink, nor about your body—what you will put on. Isn’t life more than food, and the body than clothing? (26) Observe the birds of the air! For they don’t sow and reap, nor do they gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you more valuable than they are?”

Before we go any further in this series of devotions, let’s set some groundwork:

Mammon is an alternative master—the devil

His objective is to stop us believing God’s word so God’s kingdom won’t replace his here on earth

So he works on our thinking

He injects “thoughts about our life” to “distract us”

He hopes that we will have a divided mind = anxiety

He wants us partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so we cut ourselves off from God’s life-flow

The mind divided by distracting thought-processes stops being a fruitful place for God’s kingdom rule. This is what the Holy Spirit says about this in James’s epistle:

(James 1:5–8 EMTV) If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it shall be given to him. (6) But let him ask in faith, doubting nothing, for he that doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. (7) For let not that man suppose that he shall receive anything from the Lord; {8} he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

The double-minded man is in two minds; he is caught, divided in his thinking between:

Trusting God or relying on himself,

The Old Testament or the New Testament,

Authoritatively exercising dominion or intellectually comparing and contrasting, hoping to conclude with choices that are beneficial for him.

What did Jesus tell us to do? He taught that we must maintain a good eye so we can remain single-minded, and single-focused—not distracted:

(Matthew 6:22–23 DKJV) “The lamp of the body is the eye; therefore if your eye is healthy (single-focused), your whole body will be fully illuminated. (23) But if your eye is diseased (bad), your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is completely dark, how great is that darkness!”

Today, one application we can make from Jesus’s point of the “healthy, single-focused” eye is to fix your focus on him, his Father, and heaven. This is the only way to have your whole being “fully illuminated” with the light of heaven. In other words, if you do this, you will receive all the light of revelation you need for every area of your life.

Without this revelation, fully overcoming the daily evil becomes more and more difficult. Each “key of the kingdom” comes as a revelation from God. Each snippet of wisdom you need also comes as a revelation from heaven:

(Matthew 16:17–19 NKJV) Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. … I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Having every key you need from God means you can lock out the enemy, lock in the life, health, and truth, etc.; you can lock down whatever is running out of control, or free any situation that is wrongfully locked, inoperative, tied up, or restricted. We desperately need all the revelations that heaven has stored for us; we need them for every area of our lives. So, I encourage you today to have your eyes fixed permanently on heaven, Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and his word. Make the 100% committed, permanent decision to ensure that nothing distracts you from this; stay single minded on this focus without deviation, and you will be “fully illuminated” with all the revelation you need.

In Matthew 6, Jesus gave many directives for us to obey. In truth, he laid out simple, straightforward instructions for winning our daily battle with evil. In the next lot of studies, we will look at them one by one to discover his invincible but practical way to overcome the daily evil. (If you’d like to begin with an overview of the whole of Matthew 6, I have included below my translation of it. Otherwise, go straight to the next teaching devotion.)

Matthew 6 (DKJV)

(1) “Focus your attention to ensure that you do not practice your righteous acts theatrically before others to be seen by them; otherwise you will have no reward with your Father in heaven.

(2) Therefore when you do your giving to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets so that they might be glorified by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. (3) {But} when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing (4) so that your almsgiving may be in secret; and your Father himself who sees in secret will reward you openly.

(5) And when you are praying, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. (6) {But} when you pray, enter your private store room, and shut your door; pray to your Father in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

(7) {And} when you pray, do not babble vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. ( {Therefore,} do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (9) So pray like this:

Our Father in heaven, Sanctify your name.

(10) Let your kingdom come.

Let your will be done—as it is in heaven, so also on earth;

(11) Give us this day our daily bread;

(12) And release us from our debts, as we release those in debt to us;

(13) {And} do not lead us into tests, but rescue us from evil—for yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

(14) For, if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (15) But if you do not forgive others (their trespasses), neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

(16) {And} when you fast, do not look sad like the hypocrites, for they disguise their faces that they may be seen by others to be fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. (17) But when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face, (18) so that you will not be seen by others to be fasting, but only by your Father in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly.

(19) Do not treasure up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust ruin them, and where thieves break in and steal them. (20) But treasure up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust ruin them, and where thieves do not break in or steal them. (21) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

(22) The lamp of the body is the eye; therefore if your eye is healthy (single-focused), your whole body will be fully illuminated. (23) But if your eye is diseased (bad), your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is completely dark, how great is that darkness!

(24) No one can serve as a slave to two masters: for either he will hate one, and love the other; or he will be devoted to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve as a slave to both God and mammon. (25) Therefore I say to you, don’t be distracted by thoughts about your life—what you will eat and drink; nor about your body—what you will put on. Isn’t life more than food, and the body than clothing? (26) Observe the birds of the air! For they don’t sow and reap, nor do they gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you more valuable than they are?

(27) Which of you by anxious thought can add eighteen inches to his stature? (28) And why be distracted over thoughts for your clothing? Consider closely the lilies of the field, how they grow: they don’t toil or weave; (29) and yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. (30) {Therefore,} if this is the way God clothes the grass of the field—which today is here, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven—will he not much more multiply clothes to you, O you of little faith?

(31) So don’t be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or, ‘What will we drink?’ or, ‘What will we wear?’ (32)—for the Gentiles seek all these things. For your heavenly Father knows you need all these things. (33) But seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things will be added to you as well. (34) Therefore, do not be distracted by anxious thoughts about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself: sufficient to each day is its own evil.