Matthew 6:25

Do Not Be Anxious

“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?

A recent conversation with my accountability partner concerning the amount of bible reading I do ended with me saying “I cannot live without it.” Many others would disagree and I will not argue the point.

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

At the time I answered my dear partner I did not think about the words used by Jesus to answer Satan. It would have been a better answer but my thoughts were not of how Jesus might have answered. I was answering out of my own concerns.

My thoughts of late have returned to my Vietnam tour of duty. When my life was at risk 24-7 for a year at the age of 19, what concerned me narrowed down to just one basic issue. “How do I make it through today?”

One lesson learned early was important. Fear makes you stupid. It is not anxiety because anxiety pales in comparison to real fear. Anxiety is a product of the mind derived from perceived loss. Fear deals directly with the reality of impending death. 

I do not fear death any longer. I know where I am going. When I was 19 I did not.

John 14:6 I am the way, and the truth, and the life. Now I live with Jesus. Life with Him does not start when we are gathered, it begins the moment we are born again.

I still get anxious but my concerns no longer deal with food, drink or clothing, but rather if my love matters.

Luke 7:22 And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.”

Jesus did the one thing that the religious leaders of that day did not attend to; the pressing needs of the people.

The people listened to Jesus because they saw Him tend to the needs of the helpless.

There was this exchange between John in prison and Johanna in the Chosen that rang true to me.

“Wasn’t it like He fed you and you didn’t even know you were hungry.”

Matthew 22 English Standard Version

The Parable of the Wedding Feast

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

   “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

The Chosen will ask “How can I obtain wedding garments?” Do we tell the lost what is expected of them when we invite them to the feast? They don’t even know they are hungry.