No Worries!
Songs of the Church Devotion for August 31, 2021
?“If You but Trust in God to Guide Thee” stanza 2 and 3
?“What can these anxious cares avail thee, These never-ceasing moans and sighs? What can it help if thou bewail thee O’er each dark moment as it flies? Our cross and trials do but press The heavier for our bitterness.
?Be patient and await His leisure In cheerful hope, with heart content To take whate’er thy Father’s pleasure And His discerning love hath sent, Nor doubt our inmost wants are known To Him who chose us for His own.”
?As I read these two stanzas my mind goes immediately to our Lord’s words in the Sermon on the Mount.?Jesus asks a penetrating question.?“Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to his life?”?I don’t know about you, but I spend way too much time being anxious and worrying.?
?Worry is a waste of time for any number of reasons.?One, worry changes nothing.?Second, most of the things we worry about never happen.?But, most of all, because we have a God who watches over and cares for us.?He knows what we need.
?Go back again to the words of Jesus – “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious 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 than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ?And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ?yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.”
?Jesus reminds us that God watches over every bird that flies and every flower that burns.??Then He asks, “Are not you much more valuable than they?”?Of course, you are.?God gave His Son for you.?Jesus gave His life for you.?So, no need to worry.?Your heavenly Father knows what you need.?