So do not worry, saying "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6.31-34)
When Jesus tells his disciples not to worry, it's not good advice - it's a command. And it comes from the One by whom everything in the universe is sustained and held together (Colossians 1.17).
Stop and think about that for a moment.
Now ask yourself this question: do I trust Jesus enough to obey his command?
In another place Jesus says of himself, "I have come that they may have life and have it to the full" (John 10.10). The 'they' is those who belong to him. So, when Jesus teaches us how to live, our trust must be that this is so that we may live the best life possible. ("Real life, God's way", as our church strapline puts it.) It's good for us and those we love when we follow what he teaches - really good.
Notice, though that Jesus is not saying, "Don't worry, be happy." (That was Bobby McFerrin.) As many people realise - not just Christians - you don't get to be happy by pursuing happiness, anyway.
Rather, Jesus teaches us to make our heavenly Father's priorities our priorities. Pursue what's on our Father's heart for his people and his world and align our lives with what he desires. Everything else follows from that.
That's true for us as individual believers and it's true for us corporately as a church.
We might face seasons - including this one - when we are tempted to worry about the future. There are lots of unknowns connected with the Open Church Project - as with other things in our life together. The word from Jesus is to trust our Father and make his priorities our own.
When praying about the OCP, ask the Lord to help us, above all else, to 'seek his kingdom and his righteousness' and to grow in our trust of him, for he is good.
Thanks so much for this Mark - a really helpful reminder in Bromley as well as Maidenhead. I don't know what the specifics of the OCP are, but from your blog, it's clear that these are testing times, and I wanted to stand in spiritual solidarity with those involved :-)
ReplyDeleteI have found it helpful and encouraging to reflect on something Brother Roger from Taize used to say: that whatever our problems in believing, God believes in us!
In every generation, he draws to himself a very motley crew: the Doubting Thomases and the Blustering Peters, the weeping women and the tongue-tied men, the zealots and the limelight-seekers...all sorts...and, often, as he shows us the next step, we shrink back in confusion or fear.
I am comforted that our God is the God who knows our frame and remembers that we are but dust (Psalm 103), who does not break a bruised reed or snuff out a smouldering wick (Isaiah 42), who can sympathise with us in our weakness because he has shared our humanity (Hebrews 4).
Thank God that he seems to relish working with the weak and humble and does not only recruit from the sorted and powerful. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12: 9-10 'God said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.'
May God bless everyone involved in OCP, and may you know the joy of the mustard seed sprouting, the loaves and fish multiplying and the water taking your weight :-D