Daily Bread

‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 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? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

What is your current life goal?

Each of you reading this will likely have a different answer to that question — me included. Our life goals change as we age and as our circumstances dictate, and Jesus is not denying we have important wants and needs. We all need to eat, we all need a roof over our heads, we all need companionship, and so on, but what he is saying is that in terms of priority they should come second to, and hang off, our devotion to God.

There are lots of analogies or metaphors for our journey with God, for example, the Apostle Paul favoured the metaphor of running a race with us keeping one's eye on the finishing line whilst being cheered on by Christ, but in each metaphor there is always an end goal and something for which to aim.

I'm a theologian (insomuch that I think about God a lot) and for me, I am interested in the grand meta-narrative. This is a posh way of saying that I'm interested in the over-arching story in which we find ourselves. The way I understand it is that God is drawing us to an end-point of ultimate reconciliation between God and creation, or between heaven and earth, and that this is where we are heading. I like to describe this as a tide or movement — something we can be carried along with, or something we can swim against!

Therefore, for me, my life goal is to work towards this end and it can be summed up as 'loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength' or as Jesus put it being 'devoted' to God. As all creation is in God's hands, everything in our lives is connected to God, and this includes what we will eat, what we will wear, where we will sleep, and with whom we will share our lives. They all 'hang off' our devotion to God and yes, we can pursue them and make them our life's goal, but to do so is to swim against (or at least perpendicular to) the tide.

I know, the struggle for many of us is real, and I am in no way minimising the difficulties we have in life, and perhaps this is all the more reason why we must direct our attention to God, taking comfort in the words of Jesus for if they are true, and we hope and trust they are, then everything will be okay, for, "Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things, but strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

Holy God
You know everything
I need and want,
and how I long to be
satisfied in body and mind.
Today, I choose to
give you my devotion;
and love you with
all my heart, soul,
mind, and strength,
trusting in your
providing love.