Don’t Worry...Be Happy!

Don’t Worry...Be Happy!

"Don't Worry, Be Happy" is a 1988 song by Bobby McFerrin, released as the first single from his album Simple Pleasures (1988). It was the first a cappella song to reach number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a position it held for two weeks. (Wikipedia)

The phrase “Don’t worry, be Happy” was often used by Indian spiritual Guru Meher Baba (1894–1969).

You’ve Got to Serve Somebody

"Gotta Serve Somebody" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released as the opening track on his 1979 studio album Slow Train Coming. (Wikipedia)

Matthew 6:24 NKJV

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

We will either serve the LORD and experience His rest and provision, or we will serve Mammon and experience worry and lack.

The Test of Survival

Exodus 16:1–4 NKJV

And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.

Exodus 16:20 NKJV

Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.

Deuteronomy 8:2–3 NKJV

And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

Matthew 6:25–33 NKJV

“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? 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? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 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? “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

God leads His people into the wilderness for a purpose.

It is to humble them and to test their hearts.

The test is one of faith and obedience.

Will they trust Him and obey His law and commandment?

Will they allow worry to cause them to disobey God’s law to provide for themselves according to their own way?

Who will be their “master”, the LORD or mammon? (Mt 6:24, 33)

Will they trust the LORD to provide for them daily or allow the worry about tomorrow cause them to disobey the LORD today?

Will they walk in faith or in fear? Will they be led by faith or by worry?

Worry borrows from tomorrow’s problems.

Israel did not trust God for tomorrow so they allowed worry about tomorrow to cause them to disobey God today.

Matthew 6:34 NKJV

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

God wants to give us rest from tomorrow’s worries by casting our cares over onto Him.

1 Peter 5:7 NKJV

casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

God cares for us. He knows what we need before we ask Him.

The Test of Plenty

Deuteronomy 8:11–16 NKJV

“Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end—

God will sometimes test our hearts with plenty.

We learn to trust Him in the day of survival, but then we forget to remember Him in the day of blessing.

Response to the Word