By Jeffery M. Leonard, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biblical Studies, Samford University
A Centered Life
Matthew 6:25–34
Back in the days when I was a junior high student an occasion arose when I needed to deliver a payment from my parents to the school for some athletic purpose. To this end my mom entrusted me one morning with two $100 bills which I was to deliver to my coaches in seventh period, the last period of the school day. It was a nerve-wracking experience.
My forebearers were not Rockefellers so it was not as if $100 bills were a regular part of my daily life. More to the point, even if my parents had been wealthy, I most certainly was not. Carrying around two $100 bills was a new experience for me, one that occupied my mind in an oppressive and all-
consuming way.
I patted myself down so often to ensure my wallet was still in place that I am surprised the police academy did not hire me to frisk bad guys.
Whatever subjects happened to be covered by my teachers that day in my classes made little difference to me. My mind was constantly focused on making sure I didn’t lose the weightiest bundle of cash I had ever had in my possession. It consumed my mind all day. I could hardly think of anything else.
Now with a mortgage, car payments, two sons in college and other bills, my earnest concern over just $200 brings a smile to my face. But the truth is most of us still have a lot in common with that kid in junior high school.
Our worries may take on a different form or include a few extra zeroes attached to them but they are worries still. Adding to the roster of our possessions does not make worry over them go away. Quite the opposite. The more things we possess the more our minds obsess over ensuring the safety of those things.
Don’t worry. (25–30)
If Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is any indication, worry over possessions is not a modern phenomenon. Set in the middle of His instruction to the crowds is the admonishment: “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?” (v. 25) What Jesus calls for in these lines is a reevaluation of what is most important in life.
Life, Jesus reminds His hearers, should be centered on things more important than food and clothing. A higher calling reaches out to us. And even if life did revolve around material things, what ultimately can we do about it? Birds find their food and lilies their beauty because God gives these blessings to them. God will provide us everything we need to live a God-honoring, faithful life.
A life lived along a trajectory of material prosperity but outside the trajectory of God’s blessing is a miserable life indeed.
Trust God to do what is best for you. (31–32)
More important than mastering the techniques leading to financial prosperity is mastering the attitude of trust that looks to God’s particular blessing. Jesus warns His hearers that obsessing over possessions is what the Gentiles — those people who are outside of God’s calling — do.
He urges them instead to trust in their heavenly Father, who knows exactly what they need and will provide it for them at just the right moment.
Seek the things of God above all else. (33–34)
Far more important than possessions is pursuing a life filled with Kingdom values and a commitment to God’s righteousness. Material blessings often come to God’s people simply as an outflow of living the sort of righteous lives God commands.
It is important not to get the cart before the horse. We should seek first His righteousness and then let God add His blessings when and how He sees fit.
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