Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Matthew 6:25-26
We leave the Old Testament now in our Food in Scripture quotes, and enter the New Testament, starting with quotes from one of my all-time favourite passages of Scripture! Some will point to this passage as an excuse not to prepare, as an excuse not to tend to daily needs, even as an excuse not to do what is necessary when planning ahead. None of those reasons actually apply to the passage these quotes are taken from.
Christ is speaking of obsessive worry over basic needs and expecting that we have to do it all on our own. Christ wants us relying on God for our provision, rather than ourselves. However, as demonstrated throughout the rest of Scripture, many times that provision comes along dressed in overalls and looks like work. In both the Old and the New Testament, God gives illustrations of those who refused to do the work and showed the untimely end such people came to. The Apostle Paul writes that he who does not work should not eat.
Conversely, looking to God for our provision entails the laying aside of provision for others, including that of tithes and offerings for God's House. In the Old Testament, those tithes and offerings were not merely sacrificial ritual to cover sins or thank God for the harvest, these things were also to feed the levites and priests in God's House. We are told to consider the ant, who prepares for winter's food with summer's efforts. But unlike the ant, or the giver of offerings, Christ's parable of the miserly grain farmer shows what God thinks of those who set by exclusively for themselves and no one else. If God knows that answering our prayer for provision will result in us being selfish with it, such a prayer may not be answered how, or to the level we hope for. But if we lay aside some of what God has provided with the knowledge it may be needed to bless someone else, then God will answer in the manner and timing He sees best.
We are not to be worried about where our food and clothing comes from. We just need to be willing to put in the work when God's answer for those provisions comes with a toolbox to put it together.
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Matthew 6:25-26
We leave the Old Testament now in our Food in Scripture quotes, and enter the New Testament, starting with quotes from one of my all-time favourite passages of Scripture! Some will point to this passage as an excuse not to prepare, as an excuse not to tend to daily needs, even as an excuse not to do what is necessary when planning ahead. None of those reasons actually apply to the passage these quotes are taken from.
Christ is speaking of obsessive worry over basic needs and expecting that we have to do it all on our own. Christ wants us relying on God for our provision, rather than ourselves. However, as demonstrated throughout the rest of Scripture, many times that provision comes along dressed in overalls and looks like work. In both the Old and the New Testament, God gives illustrations of those who refused to do the work and showed the untimely end such people came to. The Apostle Paul writes that he who does not work should not eat.
Conversely, looking to God for our provision entails the laying aside of provision for others, including that of tithes and offerings for God's House. In the Old Testament, those tithes and offerings were not merely sacrificial ritual to cover sins or thank God for the harvest, these things were also to feed the levites and priests in God's House. We are told to consider the ant, who prepares for winter's food with summer's efforts. But unlike the ant, or the giver of offerings, Christ's parable of the miserly grain farmer shows what God thinks of those who set by exclusively for themselves and no one else. If God knows that answering our prayer for provision will result in us being selfish with it, such a prayer may not be answered how, or to the level we hope for. But if we lay aside some of what God has provided with the knowledge it may be needed to bless someone else, then God will answer in the manner and timing He sees best.
We are not to be worried about where our food and clothing comes from. We just need to be willing to put in the work when God's answer for those provisions comes with a toolbox to put it together.