Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6:26)
What are you looking at?
Stop looking at your bills for a minute and look out the window. Look at the birds of the air. What do you see?
For one, you see scavengers. Birds don’t have the know-how or ability to work the land for food. They rely on food just being there. You also see, as Jesus points out, that the food they need is there for them. It is there Jesus says, because of your Heavenly Father. He feeds them.
Don’t miss this. Jesus looks at birds eating worms and He sees God. ‘Your Heavenly Father feeds them.’ Is that what you see? Or do you just see birds and worms? The battle with anxiety is a battle to see as Jesus sees.
Jesus isn’t just directing our eyes; He is also directing the way we think about what we see. He is providing us with an interpretational grid that will help us correctly interpret the physical observable facts of life. Another word for this is a worldview. Jesus means for us to have a fully developed Biblical worldview. This is vital, because it is on the basis of our interpretations of life that we live our lives. A faulty worldview lens will give a distorted perspective of reality, and therefore an incorrect interpretation. If we are to deal properly with our anxiety, we must learn to interpret life as Jesus does. For that to happen, we must gain His worldview.
The first lens through which Jesus interprets the world is His understanding of God’s involvement in the events of life. Jesus sees a bird munching on a berry and says, “God gave him that.” He sees the sun shining and the rain falling and says, “God did that.”
For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:45)
He even sees the death of a sparrow as the doing of God.
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. (Matthew 10:29)
Jesus is not denying natural causes, but is bringing in another level of causality alongside. Is that how you think? Do you see the work of God behind the events of life?
Meditate over the following portion from Psalm 104 and highlight what it says about God’s activity.
You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills;
they give drink to every beast of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
they sing among the branches.
From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
You cause the grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for man to cultivate,
that he may bring forth food from the earth
and wine to gladden the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine
and bread to strengthen man’s heart.
The trees of the LORD are watered abundantly,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
In them the birds build their nests;
the stork has her home in the fir trees.
The high mountains are for the wild goats;
the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
He made the moon to mark the seasons;
the sun knows its time for setting.
You make darkness, and it is night,
when all the beasts of the forest creep about.
The young lions roar for their prey,
seeking their food from God.
When the sun rises, they steal away
and lie down in their dens.
Man goes out to his work
and to his labor until the evening.
O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and great.
There go the ships,
and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.
These all look to you,
to give them their food in due season.
When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your Spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground. (Psalm 104:10-30)
The second interpretational lens through which Jesus views the world is the Fatherhood of God. Every Christian can really and truly call Him Father (John 1:12). This means God's sovereign involvement in the events of life is channelled through and governed by His care and concern for His children. Absolute sovereignty is joined with Fatherly love and commitment.
With this in mind, look again at the sparrow. God is the sparrow's creator, but He is your Father. This means that in God's estimate of things, you are far more valuable to Him than the sparrow. And if God feeds that which is of lesser value to Him, how much more will He feed that which is of greater value? His care of the sparrow guarantees His care of you. The question is, will you trust Him?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment