Our Daily Bread: Picking Up the Pieces After Job Loss Day 10

Matthew 6:25-34 

25 Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink; or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing?

26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they?

27 And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his stature or to the span of his life? [Ps. 39:5-7.]

28 And why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field and learn thoroughly how they grow; they neither toil nor spin.

29 Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his magnificence (excellence, dignity, and grace) was not arrayed like one of these. [I Kings 10:4-7.]

30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and green and tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, will He not much more surely clothe you, O you of little faith?

31 Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear?

32 For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.

33 But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.

34 So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble.

Devotional

DON'T PANIC: My nephew's job was soon to be eliminated, so I was glad to hear from his wife that he had just accepted an offer for a new position. "We prayed, I worried, and Eric was determined to get another job," Angie wrote in an e-mail, explaining the journey they'd been on for the last few months.
It's easy for us to panic when we face serious concerns: the loss of a job, a family member with cancer, a wayward child.
So we pray. And we get busy. We start doing everything we can think of to move forward in a positive way. And we worry. We know it's a waste of time. Yet a lot of us find ourselves in this dilemma...we know we should trust God, but we wonder just what He's going to do.
That's when we turn to His Word, to remind us that He is walking with us and inviting us to hand over to Him our worries and burdens. Scripture tells us, "[Cast] all your care upon Him, for He cares for you" (1 PETER 5:7), and "God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (PHILIPPIANS 4:19).
When your mind turns to anxious thoughts about the future, remember: "Your heavenly Father knows" (MATTHEW 6:32). He will give you what you need. -Cindy Hess Kasper
Worry is a burden God never intended us to bear.