Be Free From Worry In A Jobless Market

     After a year of looking for work and watching my resources dwindle to dangerous levels I was again up late looking for the newest posting on Craigslist.  Knowing that my time is also running out, I cried out in my heart, “God there has to be some better way than this relentless job search.” Now I hate to admit this but I haven’t really been making God part of my job search.  I pray that He will provide but have wondered if the reason that I’m not making any progress may be because I haven’t been giving enough money or haven’t been sowing to the right ministry. Let’s face it, when there is no income and you are only living off your savings it isn’t easy to give. You keep hearing those voices in your head about tithing but at this point 10 % of zero is zero. What can you give when there is nothing coming in?  If you have those same thoughts tormenting you and making you feel like you have done something wrong then you need to keep reading.  As I sat there at the computer a beautiful thing happened; I heard the Lord speak to me, “Seek first my kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you…” Curious about what “all these things” might mean; I decided to reread the passage in Matthew just in case I missed something.  In the past whenever I read this scripture I felt like I was being corrected by my lack of faith and exhorted not to worry. This time my eyes were opened to see this passage in a whole new light.  

Passage: Matthew 6:25-27
 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry 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? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

     What really struck me in this scripture was that God has us to observe how birds neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns YET He takes care of them.  Are we not more value than a bird? Of course we are. These birds aren’t sowing and they aren’t reaping but God takes care of them anyway.  Can we change anything by worrying?  This passage also has us consider the value and love God has for us.  This passage isn’t so much about correction as it is about God’s care for even the smallest things in the earth.  God’s priorities are not confused. He knows what He needs to take care of and we are first in line for the basic necessities in life.

Let’s read on further:
Matthew 6:28-30 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; ²⁹ and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
    
     Again, Jesus is giving another example of how even the wisest King could not do a better job than He can.  When it comes to taking care of us our Father knows what we need before we ask.  If he can care for something that has no eternal value which is here today and gone tomorrow; then don’t we have more value than a fading flower?  His statement, “O you of little faith” is Jesus’ way of saying, “Hello, you are more important than a bird or flower.  Why can’t you believe that I love you and stop sweating the small stuff?”
 
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

     Listen, if God could sacrificially give us His only Son than the things we need are really not out of God’s ability to provide for us.  He desires to bless us as His children.  For those of us who have been traumatized by cheap parental figures in our lives this may be difficult for us to embrace.  If you had absent or flaky people in your life it can become easy for us to compare God to a negligent parent. He is not.  God’s Kingdom is not run the way we run earthly corporations in which we step on other people to get to the top.  We are not CEO’s disposing of people to get to our goals nor do we use people to get what we want to provide for our families. We also do not need to become workaholics or revolve our world around making money to be successful.  That’s how heathens run their lives but those principles will never work in God’s kingdom.  Jesus gives us two important keys to success that will get rid of worry and stress in a hurry.  Let’s read this following passage with fresh eyes:   

Matthew 6:31-34 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

      Number one: Seek the kingdom of God; which means that you seek God first.  I used to get this confused with ministry. What I found out is that ministry sometimes is not God’s kingdom its men’s personal empires built for themselves.  God’s kingdom is not a place here on earth. It is a place in men’s hearts where God has set up His throne and is made Lord over our lives.

Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”   The Kingdom is within our reach all of the time.  Also, we can see from scripture that the Kingdom is demonstrated in power, “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ ⁸ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” Matthew 10:7-8

     Therefore, God’s Kingdom is mobile and transferable.  People enter it every time they believe on God and receive what He has for them. They can only enter it if they are humble and simple like a child to believe in what is unseen.  Honestly, the moment I started to shift my focus to making money instead of seeking God first things dried up like water in the desert sun.  I know the moment I focus on helping others enter into a relationship with Christ and sharing with them all He has purchased for them on the cross…I will once again be seeking His kingdom first.  So here I am sharing with you what He gave me. This does not mean that I have given up on my job search it just means that I have gotten my priorities in order again.

     Number two: Seek His righteousness. Well, first of all when we are speaking of God’s righteousness it is a far cry from our own.  Let’s face it, we can compare ourselves to the best Christian in church but it will pale in comparison to the righteousness that is in Christ Jesus.  We can claim to be righteous in Christ but the scripture is clearly asking us to seek His righteousness.  Jesus is not asking us to seek as if we have already attained it.  I think many times after being in church for a long time we stop being concerned about our standards and allowing things to slip by us by making small compromises in our faith.  Holiness gets thrown to the wayside as we focus more on service, recognition and position in church.  Our passion to be right with God gets diminished in light of people’s admiration of our gifts and talents.  The next thing we know, our Christian example has become a mockery before the world. This should not be.

     What is righteousness exactly?  Righteousness is being right with God.  It is not only about adhering to a moral conduct but is more about our relationship with God being right.  I don’t know why we do this but many of us wait until we are in death’s door to correct relational grievances that were caused by us or the other parties involved.  The relationship isn’t right because we might have caused the offense or been offended.  What is of utmost importance is reaching out to the wounded through our own wounds and letting all that hurt go.  Now we are in right standing again in that relationship.  This is the same with God.  Righteousness is the process of keeping our relationship right by keeping our heart from offense and or hurting God through disobedience.  As we seek His Kingdom, His righteousness first, then we will be able to say goodbye to the dry spell in our finances, relationships and every other area that we cannot get breakthrough in.  We need to remember that God cares for us more than a fading flower.

Matthew 12:19-21
A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench,
Till He sends forth justice to victory;
And in His name Gentiles will trust.”