Do You want to worry or do you want to pray?

When we worry, we want to talk, to chat. Last week at my uncles funeral, they had 3 speakers, one of them admitted or was threatened that if they are worried, anxious they talk to fast and to long. What if we went first to God, to talk, to chat to pray and tell Him what we are thinking or worried about? Our scripture comes today from Luke, Jesus’ words:

Luke 12:22–34 22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. 32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

NOT MY STORY BUT A STORY: When my dad was in college, he heard lots of other students get up in chapel and talk about their “mailbox miracles.” They needed money for tuition or rent or even their next meal, and that day a check arrived in the mail from some distant relative. My dad never had that experience. As he tells it, whenever he needed money, God sent him a job! But, whether through mailbox miracles or regular work, God provides.

I see God moving all of the time. In my family, here at St. Paul’s, jobs, money, rent, friendships, etc.

Just recently, I have asked for prayers for my son, for my daughter, jobs, money, for God to guide them while making major decisions in their lives. Prayer works.

Take a second or so and think, What kinds of issues prompt you to worry most?

explain:

The first three requests in the Lord’s Prayer, where really Jesus’ focus on the Father—his name, his reign, his will. Most of your prayers and mine prayers start in the middle of this prayer, well mine used to—with our own needs. what am I concerned for today, what am I worried about today? What is out of my hands today that I need to give to God ASAP? Jesus doesn’t ignore our needs does He? He just puts them in the right priority. So we turn to the request, Mt 6:11 “Give us today our daily bread”

Remember when you took Drivers Ed, the teacher started the class with you and probably 10-15 other students in the classroom, teaching you with a Drivers Ed Manual. He/or she taught you where to begin. This is what Jesus is doing here, showing us first where to begin, focusing on the Father, then going to a part of supplication, asking, Give us today our daily bread, our needs, our things to allow us to survive each day.

PRINTOUT:

1. Jesus instructs us to ask the Father for each day’s provision. Why such an emphasis on the immediate? Exactly what are “immediate provisions?”—why not ask for a month of groceries? Why not ask for our 30 year mortgage to be paid off?

Proverbs 30:7–8 “7 Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: 8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me,”

2. Do you think food is the only provision covered in this request? What other necessities might we ask the Father to give us on a daily basis? Rain, water, trees for oxygen, strength, joy, a loving touch, reading God’s Holy Word, taking the time to pray, talking with our kids, a hug from Grand kids, gas, transportation, ..........you get it don’t you all?

John 6:31–32 “31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” You see, God knows exactly what we need each day. He told them how much to gather for their families, they always had the exact amount to live on. If the people of Israel gathered to much Manna, the extra would spoil. Selfish, greedy, has that ever happens to any of you? A great sale at the story, we buy a lot, and a lot spoils. God knows what we need.

Most of the time we don’t think much about daily bread. In fact, we’re trying to eat less, not more. But when our jobs are cut in a corporate downscale, or when a dip in the stock market threatens our retirement savings or when unexpected demands stretch our financial resources, it’s easy to worry. We know God provides; we’re just afraid that he won’t be there for the crisis we are facing right now. Take time later today and read Luke 12:22-34 again.

3. On a scale of one (representing “no problems”) to ten (representing “panic”), what would you register on the worry chart today? Explain why you gave yourself that rating. Why this score? Friday, Haley was driving back from Columbus, I must say, I was a little concerned sou I would have given myself probably a 6, I was praying fervently for her safe travels.

4. Does Jesus mean, in verse 22, that we shouldn’t plan what to feed our family tomorrow or pick out clothes for work the night before?

Luke 12:22 “22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.”

Of course not, He means not to get consumed with it, we can plan our day or next day, because of our hectic lives but do not get all stressed out. He means He will take of our needs when we are obedient, when we ask Him, when we thank Him.

5. How would you use these verses to encourage someone who has just lost a job?

Give an example, we have to let others know what are God’s Priorities, not always ours.

6. I get asked this question all the time, usually at funerals or traumatic times. How do people who live without faith in God, how do they deal with their daily needs? (“the pagan world,” v. 30) Luke 12:30 “30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.”

Our we Expressing our dependence on God for all the necessities of life.?

Some interpreters of the Lord’s Prayer see the phrase “Give us today our daily bread” as a request for spiritual food rather than physical food. Augustine, a church leader in the fifth century, wrote: “It is a prayer for spiritual food, namely, the divine precepts which we are to think over and put into practice each day.” How do you pray for spiritual nourishment?

John 6:35 “35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

AMEN