“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:26-27)
When talking about money, Jesus is both spiritual and practical here. Don’t worry about money, He said, because your Father is the God of the universe and He likes you. Then the practical: Worry doesn’t work. It’s not an effective response to being broke. It’s wasted effort.
So why do we still worry? Partly because we want control. Worry becomes an idol we serve instead of giving up our illusion of running our own life. So we trade peace of mind for a worthless effort to “do” something by feeling bad about what we cannot change. We sabotage the day in front of us rather than surrender our circumstances to God.
Corrie ten Boom, the Nazi concentration camp survivor and a Christian, put it this way: “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of it’s strength.”
Think: Do you ever think of worry as a lack of faith in your Father? As serving a false god instead of letting go of what we can’t control? As a waste of time?
Pray: Ask God to help you to let go of worrying today, especially about money.
Do: Make a quick list of five things you might be tempted to worry about this week. Write in big letters at the top of the list, “God likes me.”