GOD'S PROVIDENTIAL CARE

And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.  (Luke 12:29-31 NKJV)

At the time when our Lord spoke these words, the fields of Palestine were carpeted with wild flowers and the air was perfumed with their fragrance, decorating the pastures, growing in the hedge-rows, and hiding in the woodland glades. Theirs was as careless a life as that of the birds which were flying overhead. "They toil not, neither do they spin." For some plants, like the exotics of the greenhouse and nurseries, there must be extreme care and expense in their cultivation, in the provision of heat and the experienced skill of the horticulturist. But our Lord was not alluding to these, but to the flowers of the grass, which grow amid the wilds of nature, or in the gardens of the poor, and to Him these were very beautiful.

This wondrous growth teaches us that God loves beautiful things, and expends thought and skill in their production. He might have made the world without a daisy, and human life without the beauty of childhood. But since He clothed with beauty the short-lived flowers of the wilds; the temporary insects of a summer day; the shells of the minute creatures that build up the solid fabric of the rocks, surely this luxury, this lavishness, this prolific superabundance of creativeness, must mean that He can and will withhold no good thing from them that trust Him.

Of course we must fulfill our part! We are not to be careless and inconsiderate; we must certainly sow and reap, and toil and spin; but when we have done all, we must rely upon our heavenly Father whose good pleasure it is to give, believing that it is vain for us to rise up early, and sit up late, and to eat the bread of sorrows, for our God will give us all that we need, even while we sleep. He will not allow His trusting children to starve or to go unsheltered, unclothed, and unshod. "Fear not, little flock” says the comforting voice of the Good Shepherd, "for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

PRAYER

Gracious Lord, grant to me, Your poor needy creature, sometimes at least to feel, if it be but a small portion of Your hearty affectionate love; that my faith may become more strong, my hope in Your goodness may be increased, and that love, once kindled within me, may never fail.   I plead it in Jesus’ name, AMEN.

God's Daily Promise

Promise #161:
You can enjoy freedom because Christ has set you free.

Galatians 5:1 (WEB)
Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free,
and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.