Rest Or Worry Part 1

Rest Or Worry PART 1

When there are so many things on hand, it is vital to put aside what is URGENT to focus on what is IMPORTANT. Only one thing is necessary, like Mary, and that is to choose His presence. Today, I chose to sit at His feet while I know that I have so many different things that I have yet to do.

“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 the 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? - Matt 6:25-30 (emphasis added)

This passage is a continual source of power and strength to me personally. Each time when I meditate on it, I discover fresh riches of His grace.

While we are concerned with the external, God is concerned with our internal. What we eat or drink are from outside in, but our LIFE is from inside out. We are concerned with the material things, but God is concerned with our inner life - our soul. 

"Beloved, I wish that you prosper in all things and be in health, even as your soul prospers." - 3 John 2

There is an order of priority: Soul -> Body -> Material. The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart. The greatest care has to be the care of the soul, for which God is concerned with.

While we are anxious about what to wear, God is 'anxious' about our health (BODY). Because health is the greatest asset, as compared to Prada, Gucci, etc. You can have $1 million but without health, you really have nothing. What is outside always depreciates, but what is inside will appreciate. This is why men look for girlfriends who are beautiful on the outside but they look for wives who are beautiful on the inside.

God is waiting for us to see what He sees: for us to stop looking outside and start looking inside - LIFE & HEALTH, so that we realise these intangible assets require ONE thing: Complete dependence upon Him.

When we focus on the external things, we WORK for it because it is humanly achievable. When we focus on the internal, we REST for it because it is humanly impossible.

This is why God said, "Do not worry about your life and your body..." We worry because we think that our life has to do with food and our body has to do with clothing, when in actual fact, it has to do with our soul and our health. So we will keep worrying if we keep looking at the external. 

When God said, "Do not worry", it means that He has a remedy. Worrying is an attitude of the heart. What's the remedy? Resting. Because resting is also an attitude of the heart. Resting is not inactivity. It is a constant activity to affirm your value and your identity. The reason why people cannot rest is because they don't know their value. So they tie their value to their achievements - job, work, fitness regime, miracles, signs and wonders, etc. But the moment they stop doing, they feel useless and get depressed. They question their self-worth. The greatest test of a person's value is not giving him challenges and work; it's giving him nothing to do and force him to do nothing - that will reveal his true value.

This is why resting is an attitude where many of us don't live there all the time. And we need to get back to focus on that ONE thing: To sit at His feet and appreciate Him, so that we will appreciate our value in Him.

In the next part, we will see how God graciously and lovingly empowered us to REST, instead of worrying. He is a good, good Father. #identity #rest #supply