No worries
Day 438, Thursday, Oct. 23
Matthew 6:25 – Chapter 7
I’m a worrier.
I know I come by it naturally. I remember my mother always being consumed by worry, usually over the least likely things.
But that’s not how God tells us to live.
Matthew 6:25-34 is all about not worrying, reminding us that God takes care of the birds of the air and the flowers of the field and he will surely take care of us, too.
It asks, “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
But the words are more than just encouragement to live a life free from worry and anxiety.
The admonition not to worry is, in fact, a command. “Therefore I tell you, do no worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.”
But how do we do that. Some of us, at least it seems, are programmed to worry. Something in our nature or upbringing makes us always assume that things are bound to go wrong and to believe, all evidence aside, that obsessing over it will make it better.
Fortunately, Matthew offers a way out of worry.
It’s not about meditation or visualization or mindfulness or whatever the latest self-improvement kick is. It’s about action; actually doing something.
The answer is found in 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
We defeat worry by replacing thoughts with action and by changing the focus from self to God.

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Thursday meditation

Psalms 16:1-11
Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” I say of the holy people who are in the land, “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.” Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips.
Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Prayer focus
Lord, take the energy we want to use in worry and put it toward the building of your kingdom.