Field Lilies

So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin.  Matthew 5:  1 - 2

Jesus has been teaching and talking to His disciples on worry. He is reasoning with them on the folly and futility of this utterly harmful and damning attitude and behaviour. Jesus is spending considerable time reasoning and showing all His hearers why this worry is absolutely of no help to them. I do not believe that anyone ever went to Jesus and told Him that he or she was worrying about clothing. Yet Jesus spoke about the clothes people wear.

You did not ask Jesus about clothes to wear, yet He has chosen to speak to you today, about worry and clothing. You are too mannerly, and respectful to ask God, why clothing? You do not ever worry about clothes to wear. In fact, you have clothes that you do not wear, clothes you can give to others. Yes, you know that you do worry and can even identify the issues in your life at present which cause you great, pressing worry, but it is not about clothes or anything remotely related to clothing. And yet Jesus comes to you, talking and reasoning with you about this specific worry. He says outright, So why do you worry about clothing? You want to respectfully disagree and say, but Lord, I am not worrying about clothing. Look, I’m wearing clothes and good clothes at that, not rags. Come Lord, I open my clothes closet for You to see that it is filled with clothes and I have more in draws. No Lord, You have it wrong this time, for clothing is a non-worry issue with me.

However, you are quickly stopped in your tracks, your foolish carnal thoughts, and made to look fully at the One about whom you are thinking such self-righteous, aggrandizing thoughts.  Who am I, a created creature, to even think that God got something wrong about me? God forgive me and all like me who rush off in human folly, to think such wicked lies against the Omniscient God. 

Straightway I am returned to my place. With repentant heart, I once again yield my mind to God in the mercy of the Holy Spirit, who promptly reminds me of these facts about myself. Our Lord does not see as you see, He does not think as you think; He does not know as you know; He does not speak as you speak and He certainly does not act as you act.

Lord, please forgive me and save me from the error of my ways. I yield all to Your wisdom and knowledge, knowing that You love me with a saving love and You earnestly want me to walk Your path. I bow Lord, I come prostrate before You, seeking Your help to pluck every idol from Your throne, whatever it may be. Amen! 

I now confess that I am worrying about clothing because Jesus has told this truth to me. Who knows, as things are made clearer to you and me, and truth is uncovered and unearthed, like me, our Loving, caring Father will show us much that have been causing us to live contrary to His teachings and thereby not receiving all His offered blessings, His promised blessings. Daily, I am being reminded that our Lord and Saviour suffered, bled, died and rose again so that you and I might know all, not some, but all His promised blessings.

The image of God on the Cross is the image of my Substitution. I am the person who sinned, not my Master. I am the person who deserved death, since the law does not waver on its truth. The wages of sin is death. The law does not care who pays the price, as long as it is paid. It is because the law cannot override grace, because the law is solely punitive and has no grace and mercy to save, that Jesus was able to be our Substitutionary Saviour. He died in my place. Much more then, having saved me from that death, will He not want me to live with Him, on His Abundant grace to keep me free from the follies of sin? Then I can accept that I am worrying about my clothing.  Jesus is speaking to His followers, His students, His disciples. He is speaking to you and to me. He is reasoning with us using what is visible, tangible and imitable.

Before taking another thought, we are to be fully aware of where Jesus is, the place from which He is speaking.  He is in the same position He was in when He spoke about peacemakers and promised that they are blessed giving the unalterable promise that they shall be called sons of God.

Jesus is still in the place, on that mountain, in his seated position, preaching, teaching and feeding his own people, the disciples who have come up the mountain to Him. This is very homely, relaxed atmosphere when He addresses a lot of their human issues, whether on anxiety, worry, fears, doubts and concerns about their human status and how it will affect their Spiritual lives. Like those disciples, we are also receiving, not just good, helpful, needed words from our Lord, but we are receiving promises that are uncalculated and unalterable. We are receiving from the One whose Word is His bond, for He is not human that He should deceive and tell lies.

So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin.