Trusting God for Daily Needs

KEY VERSE: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” —Matthew 6:33

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Matthew 6:19-21, 24-34; Luke 12:13-21

IN TODAY’S LESSON, Jesus continues his sermon on the mount, teaching his disciples how unrewarding and seductive earthly riches can be alongside heavenly treasure. When our Lord spoke of earthly treasures he had in mind not only money and material wealth, but also those fleeting human rewards with which the world seduces us, such as popularity; power, and ease.

Jesus said, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matt. 6:19-21) Our Lord was aware that each of us naturally cares for and thinks about that which is the most important to us.

Continuing, he said that no man can serve two masters, for he would hate one and love the other. Then Jesus emphatically declares to his hearers, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (vs. 24), referring to money or earthly treasure in general. Of course money, of itself, is not an evil. It is the love of money that is the root of evil. And we must choose between the love of God and the love of money. We can enjoy money and the things it can buy, but we are not to worship it. Jesus points out that his followers should not be anxious or worry about food or drink to stay alive, or about the clothing they wear, because life is more important than these material things.

The Apostle Paul, in agreement with the Master, also cautions that we cannot divide our loyalties. He says in I Timothy 6:10, using Wilson’s Emphatic Diaglott rendering: “A root of all kinds of evil is the love of money; which some longing after, wandered from the faith and pierced themselves around with many sorrows.” Neither Jesus nor Paul, however, are saying we should pay no attention to the practical necessities of life, but we should keep our priorities straight: God’s kingdom comes first!

In our Key Verse, Jesus instructed his followers along these same lines. Since we are to seek first the kingdom of heaven, what then, we ask, are the ‘all things’ that shall be added to us? Our Lord counseled his disciples to take no anxious thought for their life, in the sense of preoccupation over their supply of food, drink, clothing, or other basic necessities of life, for the “Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” (Matt. 6:32) He said that even the fowls of the air neither sow nor reap, nor gather into the barn, yet the Heavenly Father feeds them. Then he asked, “Are ye not much better than they?”—vs. 26

Again he asks, “Why take ye thought for raiment?” (vs. 28) Commenting on his question he said, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”—vss. 28,29

Finally, Jesus admonishes us, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”—vs. 34.

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