Before I can even get into How God Read My Mail or must have been that proverbial Fly on the Wall at my house, let me first share some of the history of the past week for you to get a clearer understanding of where I’m coming from.
The saga with the house is still ongoing. Then we’ll add all my regular bills, plus money I owe to everyone that has helped me out when money got low or was non-existent. Then I get word of a few other “unexpected” bills that need to be taken care of with September’s paycheck. Never mind that I’m still trying to adjust to getting paid once a month.
So, I’ve got all that on my mind and trying to figure out where all this money is coming from…because aside from what my children may think, I really do not have a tree in the back that produces money. And then I will confess that I know that I am really struggling this month because I ROBBED GOD!
Confessions really are good for the soul, but can also show you how foolish you really are. Duh, I know this principle and I’ve obeyed it and watched God do some amazing things. Anyway, I’ve been mentally tallying up all that will be coming out of my check and I’m already in the red and I haven’t even gotten paid yet.
Next, God has clearly told me not to focus on academics for the next 2-3 months with the children’s schooling, to strictly focus on His word and disciple my children. He’s been so clear on what to do that we will only need a few items to get school started tomorrow. Nevertheless, how many of you know it’s easy to get out of Egypt but hard to get the Egyptian mentality out of you r mind? So here I spent the majority of my weekend trying to gather up the math curriculum we need to finish up, I’ve gone online and printed out free worksheet, etc. However, there is a kink in “my” well thought out plan. We didn’t pack their school curriculum in storage, yet we can’t find a set of math books. Mind you the house is virtually empty because we’ll be vacating it rather soon. So where are the books? I frantically searched for them. We went to the storage room on two separate occasions on Saturday to search for them; NOTHING! Well, we did find several other school books but not the math books. UGH
I worried/fretted, got anxious/nervous. I even cried! I wanted those books and I wanted them now. Never mind that GOD SAID to focus solely on Him for now. Surely He meant for us to also do some academic work as well. You know, surely I know better than God…as far as what my children need. After all, I’m their mother!
Well, we have to give up the search, but my mind is on books as I go to bed. I should have been preparing my mind for Sunday worship, but did that dawn on me?
While Pastor Evans is away on vacation, he invited several different speakers to minister to us in his place. He did a find job in the ones he chose. No, none of them can replace him, but wow they were all good. Well this Sunday it was Dr. Maurice Watson from Macon, GA. His message was on Worry Free Living. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm I thought, this may be good. Don’t you know God was already in my ear whispering, yes and this is just for you!
Within my ranting, I will attempt to include my notes, but I apologize in advance because I know that they don’t do justice to his message.
Please take a moment to read Matthew 6:25-34 – 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? 26 “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? 27 “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of he field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29”and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 “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? 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 “For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33”But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these tings shall be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Is worry/stress so common to you as breathing/sleeping? Worry causes sickness, diseases, rapid aging, abuse of legal/illegal drugs & alcohol. At the age of 4 we worry about a dark room. At the age of 13 we worry about our appearance & fitting in. Parents worry about their parenting skills, employees worry about job security, and senior citizens worry about cuts to their social security. But God has given us an instruction manual we refuse to use. In Matthew 6:25-34, there is a process to living a worry free life.
Comply with the command DON’T WORRY! To worry is to be distracted or torn in two different directions. To come apart at the seams of your mind. If God had enough sense to make us, doesn’t He have enough to provide our needs to sustain the very life He gave/gives us?
This reminds me of a song by Kirk Franklin…He Will Supply. One of the lines is He will supply your NEEDS not your GREEDS. There is a difference. My thought was – standing in a shoe store, a woman spots a bad pair of blue (navy blue) pumps. She doesn’t have any that look like that. She knows she shouldn’t buy the shoes but she justifies it with, I NEED these to go with an outfit in my closet. This was not a need, but a greed. God said He would supply our needs. He doesn’t mind us having more than our basic needs, if you get more, that is a bonus blessing.
Get your priorities in order. It clearly says to seek FIRST the Kingdom. Seek God, His ways and all these things will be added. Sooooo when I robbed God & didn’t seek His way, His Kingdom, I struggled to make ends meet. However, in the past when I’ve given the tithe, even though bills were more than my money, I paid all bills and still had extra. ONLY GOD!!!
Lastly it says don’t worry about tomorrow. Worrying about something you can’t change or about something that may never happen will cause you to go to an early grave. Face the future by planning wisely but don’t worry about it.
So I’m sitting there in service listening intently and thinking over my week & weekend. Boy did I have much to repent for. But it’s like I can hear the Lord…with a loud, long, sigh J (My interpretation) My child, didn’t I already give you guidance and instructions? All you needed to do was obey. If I care for the birds in the air & the flowers in the field, wouldn’t I take care of you & your children who are far more important to me?
Why do we worry? Why do we doubt? Especially for those of us that have seen God pour out blessings we had no room to receive. What stops us in our tracks and has us thinking God is not concerned with our needs that they must be too small or that they’re even too big for Him to do anything about? Dare I say it’s because we put God back in a box & figure we are more capable than Him. Yes we know He is the Creator of all but…Or we so easily & foolishly forget all that He’s already done for us.
Wow, sounds like the Israelites AGAIN!!! You know those chosen people that God brought out of slavery, covered , fed & protected them and yet time after time they forgot what He had already done and focused on what was before the. Or like Peter walking on water…at least he was while his eyes were on Jesus.
Take your eyes off of God and forget about His kingdom & you will have a life full of worry. Now I don’t know if you got the same conclusion I did, but I will leave you to draw your own.
The saga with the house is still ongoing. Then we’ll add all my regular bills, plus money I owe to everyone that has helped me out when money got low or was non-existent. Then I get word of a few other “unexpected” bills that need to be taken care of with September’s paycheck. Never mind that I’m still trying to adjust to getting paid once a month.
So, I’ve got all that on my mind and trying to figure out where all this money is coming from…because aside from what my children may think, I really do not have a tree in the back that produces money. And then I will confess that I know that I am really struggling this month because I ROBBED GOD!
Confessions really are good for the soul, but can also show you how foolish you really are. Duh, I know this principle and I’ve obeyed it and watched God do some amazing things. Anyway, I’ve been mentally tallying up all that will be coming out of my check and I’m already in the red and I haven’t even gotten paid yet.
Next, God has clearly told me not to focus on academics for the next 2-3 months with the children’s schooling, to strictly focus on His word and disciple my children. He’s been so clear on what to do that we will only need a few items to get school started tomorrow. Nevertheless, how many of you know it’s easy to get out of Egypt but hard to get the Egyptian mentality out of you r mind? So here I spent the majority of my weekend trying to gather up the math curriculum we need to finish up, I’ve gone online and printed out free worksheet, etc. However, there is a kink in “my” well thought out plan. We didn’t pack their school curriculum in storage, yet we can’t find a set of math books. Mind you the house is virtually empty because we’ll be vacating it rather soon. So where are the books? I frantically searched for them. We went to the storage room on two separate occasions on Saturday to search for them; NOTHING! Well, we did find several other school books but not the math books. UGH
I worried/fretted, got anxious/nervous. I even cried! I wanted those books and I wanted them now. Never mind that GOD SAID to focus solely on Him for now. Surely He meant for us to also do some academic work as well. You know, surely I know better than God…as far as what my children need. After all, I’m their mother!
Well, we have to give up the search, but my mind is on books as I go to bed. I should have been preparing my mind for Sunday worship, but did that dawn on me?
While Pastor Evans is away on vacation, he invited several different speakers to minister to us in his place. He did a find job in the ones he chose. No, none of them can replace him, but wow they were all good. Well this Sunday it was Dr. Maurice Watson from Macon, GA. His message was on Worry Free Living. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm I thought, this may be good. Don’t you know God was already in my ear whispering, yes and this is just for you!
Within my ranting, I will attempt to include my notes, but I apologize in advance because I know that they don’t do justice to his message.
Please take a moment to read Matthew 6:25-34 – 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? 26 “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? 27 “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of he field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29”and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 “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? 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 “For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33”But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these tings shall be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Is worry/stress so common to you as breathing/sleeping? Worry causes sickness, diseases, rapid aging, abuse of legal/illegal drugs & alcohol. At the age of 4 we worry about a dark room. At the age of 13 we worry about our appearance & fitting in. Parents worry about their parenting skills, employees worry about job security, and senior citizens worry about cuts to their social security. But God has given us an instruction manual we refuse to use. In Matthew 6:25-34, there is a process to living a worry free life.
Comply with the command DON’T WORRY! To worry is to be distracted or torn in two different directions. To come apart at the seams of your mind. If God had enough sense to make us, doesn’t He have enough to provide our needs to sustain the very life He gave/gives us?
This reminds me of a song by Kirk Franklin…He Will Supply. One of the lines is He will supply your NEEDS not your GREEDS. There is a difference. My thought was – standing in a shoe store, a woman spots a bad pair of blue (navy blue) pumps. She doesn’t have any that look like that. She knows she shouldn’t buy the shoes but she justifies it with, I NEED these to go with an outfit in my closet. This was not a need, but a greed. God said He would supply our needs. He doesn’t mind us having more than our basic needs, if you get more, that is a bonus blessing.
Get your priorities in order. It clearly says to seek FIRST the Kingdom. Seek God, His ways and all these things will be added. Sooooo when I robbed God & didn’t seek His way, His Kingdom, I struggled to make ends meet. However, in the past when I’ve given the tithe, even though bills were more than my money, I paid all bills and still had extra. ONLY GOD!!!
Lastly it says don’t worry about tomorrow. Worrying about something you can’t change or about something that may never happen will cause you to go to an early grave. Face the future by planning wisely but don’t worry about it.
So I’m sitting there in service listening intently and thinking over my week & weekend. Boy did I have much to repent for. But it’s like I can hear the Lord…with a loud, long, sigh J (My interpretation) My child, didn’t I already give you guidance and instructions? All you needed to do was obey. If I care for the birds in the air & the flowers in the field, wouldn’t I take care of you & your children who are far more important to me?
Why do we worry? Why do we doubt? Especially for those of us that have seen God pour out blessings we had no room to receive. What stops us in our tracks and has us thinking God is not concerned with our needs that they must be too small or that they’re even too big for Him to do anything about? Dare I say it’s because we put God back in a box & figure we are more capable than Him. Yes we know He is the Creator of all but…Or we so easily & foolishly forget all that He’s already done for us.
Wow, sounds like the Israelites AGAIN!!! You know those chosen people that God brought out of slavery, covered , fed & protected them and yet time after time they forgot what He had already done and focused on what was before the. Or like Peter walking on water…at least he was while his eyes were on Jesus.
Take your eyes off of God and forget about His kingdom & you will have a life full of worry. Now I don’t know if you got the same conclusion I did, but I will leave you to draw your own.
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