Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from Mt 6:28 and following. Indeed, those who seek the Lord are not deprived of any goods. “Si God gives these herbs what was not necessary for them, since this brilliance they have is in no way used to nourish the fire that burns them; how would he deny you what you need? After having adorned the slightest things with so many superfluous ornaments, only to show his omnipotence, how would he neglect you, who are the masterpiece of his creatures? How would he deny you what is necessary for the support of life? After he has thus shown men how far his providence extends, he judges it appropriate to rebuke them, but he does so only with great restraint, and instead of calling them people without faith, he is content to call them people of little faith. »
For Christ proposed to us as a model the docility of matter by advising us to look at the lilies of the fields that do not work or spin. That is to say, they did not propose to put on this or that color, they did not set in motion their will or dispose of the means for this purpose, they received all that natural necessity brought them. If they seem to us infinitely more beautiful than rich fabrics, it is not that they are richer, it is out of docility. For God created the universe, and His Son, our firstborn brother, created its beauty for us. The beauty of the world is Christ’s smile of tenderness for us through matter. It is truly present in universal beauty. The love of this beauty proceeds from God descending into our souls and going to God present in the universe.
So why worry about clothes? Observe the flowers of the fields, watch how they grow. They don’t spin and they don’t weave. Yet I tell you: even Solomon, with all his wealth, never had clothes as beautiful as one of these flowers. The grass is in the fields today, and tomorrow it will be thrown into the fire. And yet, God dresses him in beautiful clothes. You who do not have much faith, you can be sure of one thing: God will do at least the same for you! “Don’t be worried by asking yourself, ‘What are we going to eat? What are we going to drink? What are we going to dress with?” Indeed, people who do not know God seek all this all the time. You need all these things, and your Father who is in heaven knows this well. First seek the Kingdom of God and what God asks. It will give you everything else in addition. “So don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a concern for himself. Today’s fatigue is enough for today! »
Let us observe in Creation the innumerable little witnesses of the touching solicitude and goodness of the heavenly Father: flowers, birds… (Ps 34:10; Ps 147:1-11). No, God will never be the debtor of those who put His interests before their own, of those who choose Him (Luke 10:38-42). But we have to start there. For if one has a simple eye, one will serve only one master, the Lord. If one wants to serve two, one will be neglected: one will even hate it; he will be despised. With a heart as bad as ours, we know well which of the two will be despised more quickly, God or the world, Mammon. If the heart attaches itself to the world, it will abandon God. What contempt for God to turn away from Him! The worries of the present life expose us to attach ourselves to the things of the earth and to the world. That is why the Lord exhorts us not to be concerned about what we will eat or drink, or our clothes. Birds do not stock up; they do not amass fortune; it is God who feeds them. The lilies of the fields cannot be concerned with their adornment; yet Solomon, in all his glory, was not clothed as one of them. Birds have little value; lilies can fall under the faucille from one day to the next and dry out, and yet God takes care of what concerns them.
How much more will God care for His own who have such a great value in His eyes? “The same one who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him for all of us, … will he not also give us, freely, all things with him?” (Rom 8. 32). We can therefore blame him for all our worries, while the world does not know God as Father and does not depend on him; for his part, he has only the things of this world and works only for matter. We have to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything else will be given to us on top, so that we do not have to worry about the things of life, so that we will be diverted to the world. “Your Heavenly Father knows that you need … these things.
The separation from the spirit of the world and from its worries is clearly made (Mt 6. 19-34). For the Lord always speaks and acts as an obedient man, moved and directed by the Holy Spirit; but it is most strikingly seen in the Gospel of Matthew, who is the one who does so; and this is what gives the kingdom of heaven its true moral character. John the Baptist could announce the kingdom of heaven as a change of economy, but his ministry was earthly. Christ too could proclaim this same truth (and this change in economy was of all importance), but in Him there was more to it than that. He was from heaven, the Lord who came from heaven. Speaking of the kingdom of heaven, he spoke of the deep and divine abundance of his heart. No one had been in heaven except the one who had descended from it, the Son of man who was in heaven (Jn 3. 13). Thus, speaking of heaven, Jesus was saying what He knew, and bearing witness to what He had seen. This truth, as presented in Matthew, was realized in two ways. It was no longer an earthly government according to the law; Jehovah the Savior, Emmanuel was there. Could he be anything but heavenly in his character, in the spirit, in the essential principles of his whole life?
Moreover, when Christ began His public ministry and was sealed with the Holy Spirit, heaven was opened to Him. He was identified with heaven as the sealed man of the Holy Spirit on earth. Thus he was the continual expression of the spirit, of the reality of heaven. It was not yet the exercise of judicial power asserting this character against everything that opposed it. It was the manifestation of this character in patience, despite the opposition of everything around him and the inability of his disciples to understand him. Thus, in the Sermon on the Mount, we find the description of what is suitable for the kingdom of heaven, and even the assurance of a reward in heaven to those who will suffer for Christ on earth. This description, as we have seen, is essentially that of the character of Christ himself. This is how a celestial heart expresses itself on earth. If the Lord taught these things, it was because He loved them, because He was the reality of them, and Because He savored them. Being the God of heaven, filled as a man with the Holy Spirit without measure, his heart was perfectly related to a heaven he knew perfectly.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
Divine Providence:
· Ephemeral things
-The power Ps 37:35-36 I have seen the wicked in all his power; It stretched out like a green tree. 36 He has passed, and behold, he is no more; I look for him, and he is no longer there.
-Life Ps 90:10 The days of our years amount to seventy years, and, for the most robust, to eighty years; And the pride they derive from it is only pain and misery, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.
-Material things Ps 102:26-27 You once founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. 27 They will perish, but you will subsist; They will all wear out like a garment; You will change them like a habit, and they will be changed.
-Pleasure Lk 12:19-20 and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have many goods in reserve for several years; rest, eat, drink, and rejoice. 20 But God said to him: Foolish! this very night your soul will be asked of you again; and what have you prepared, for whom will it be?
Knowledge 1 Cor 13:8 Charity never perishes. Prophecies will end, tongues will cease, knowledge will disappear.
-Glory 1 Pet 1:24 For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of grass. The grass dries, and the flower falls;
· Lessons from nature
Ps 8:4 When I contemplate the heavens, work of your hands, The moon and the stars that you have created; Mt 6.28 And why worry about clothing? Consider how the lilies of the fields grow: they do not work or spin; Mt 13:31 He offered them another parable, and he said: The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of seed that a man has taken and sown in his field. Mk 4:28 The earth produces by itself, first the grass, then the cob, then the grain all formed in the cob; Mk 13:28 Learn with a comparison from the fig tree. As soon as its branches become tender, and the leaves grow, you know that summer is near.
· Examples of Weak Faith
Mt 6:30 If God puts on the grass of the fields in this way, which exists today and which tomorrow will be thrown into the oven, will he not clothe you all the more, people of little faith? Mt 8:26 He said to them: Why are you afraid, people of little faith? Then he stood up, threatened the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. Mt 14:31 Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand, grasped him, and said to him: Man of little faith, why did you doubt? Mt 16:8 Jesus, having known him, said: Why do you reason in yourselves, people of little faith, that you have not taken bread?
· God’s priority over all human possessions
Nb 3:13 For every firstborn belongs to me; on the day I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated to myself all the firstborn in Israel, both men and animals: they will belong to me. I am the Lord. Dt 26:2 thou shalt take the first fruits of all the fruits which thou shalt take from the soil in the land which Jehovah your God gives you, you shall put them in a basket, and you shall go to the place chosen by Jehovah thy God to make his name dwell there. 1 Kings 17:13 Elijah said to him, Fear not, go back, do as you said. Only, prepare me first with this a small cake, and you will bring it to me; then you will do it for yourself and for your son. Mt 6:33 Seek first the kingdom and righteousness of God; and all these things will be given to you above.
From all the above, we note that the Lord Jesus concludes with these words the description of the character that his disciples were to assume: “You, therefore, be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” All of their conduct was to be related to their Heavenly Father. “Every day is enough his sorrow.” We must not add to today’s pain that of tomorrow, because we may not see another day and, if we succeed, we will find there what God has prepared. He who prepares the food for the little ones of the crow, he gives everyone the food in his time. At the same time, the disciples are placed individually in relation to the Father – the consequence of the fact that the Son was there – and Jesus presents them with something more excellent than their position as a witness to the kingdom. The disciples were to act in grace, as their Father acted; and their prayer was to seek an order of things in which everything would respond morally to the character and will of their Father: “Thy name be sanctified; Thy kingdom come”; that is, everything responds to the character of the Father, that everything is the effect of his power. “Let your will be done, as in heaven, also on earth,” is perfect obedience. All things subject to God in heaven and on earth will be the result accomplished, to a certain extent, by Christ’s intervention in the millennium; absolutely accomplished when God will be all in all. In the meantime, prayer expresses daily dependence, the need for forgiveness, the need to be guarded from the power of the enemy, the desire not to be riddled by him as a dispensation of God, as Job and Peter were, and to be delivered from evil. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow ” the parable of the birds of the sky.”
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.