Luke Bible Study, Day 24
Today’s passage: Luke 12
Focus verse:“But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” (Luke 12:31)
Jesus teaches about worry. Specifically, he says not to do it.
We aren’t to worry about life, about what we eat or wear. I’m sure Jesus’s audience then had a much more basic concern about food and clothing than most of us do today.
This doesn’t mean there aren’t starving people in our world now or those who need something to wear, because there are.
For many of us, the question of food isn’t where we can find something to eat but what to pick. The same goes for clothes. Our concern isn’t about covering our bodies but about which items in our overstuffed closet to put on.
Just because many of us don’t worry about food and clothes like people did two thousand years ago, we still have plenty of things that concern us. It’s just that we worry about other things.
We may worry about getting a job, covering rent, or whether to buy a car. We worry about the future, such as healthcare, retirement, and growing old.
Other concerns include wearing what’s in style, buying the newest technology, or what others think about us. These are first-world problems. Yet we worry about them all.
Most of the things we worry about will never happen. Some say the percentage of unrealized worries is 85 percent and others 92, up to a high of 99 percent. That’s a lot of time wasted with needless worry.
What should we do instead of worrying?
Jesus reminds us that God feeds the birds and clothes the flowers. How much more so will he take care of us and our needs?
As a child I learned that the antidote to worry was prayer. There’s certainly truth in this. Why worry when we can pray? However, I’ve yet to find a single verse in the Bible that lists prayer as the solution to worry.
What Jesus says about worry is, “Pursue the kingdom of God first. Then these other things will follow.”
Then Jesus tells us to not be afraid, because God is pleased to give us his kingdom.
Instead of worrying, we can trust God to give us what we need when we seek him and his kingdom.
That’s the antidote to worry.
Questions:
When confronted with worry, do we wallow in it or pray about it and trust God to take care of us?
How can we first seek his kingdom?
[Discover more about not worrying in Matthew 6:25–34 and Luke 10:41–42.]
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Read more about the book of Luke in Dear Theophilus: A 40-Day Devotional Exploring the Life of Jesus through the Gospel of Luke, now available in ebook, paperback, and hardcover.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront a status quo faith and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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