Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;
my LORD has forgotten me.”
Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you.
Jesus said to his disciples:
“No one can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.
“No one can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’
or ‘What are we to drink?’or ‘What are we to wear?’
All these things the pagans seek.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”
what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’
or ‘What are we to drink?’or ‘What are we to wear?’
All these things the pagans seek.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”
since both of the readings were thought-provoking and interesting, I thought it'd be good to do them both :)
ReplyDelete1. The feeling of being left behind and forgotten...it is something we have all experienced. When someone who you regarded as a person that you trusted and cared about forgets and leaves you behind, it is something that is extremely hard to shake. I know it's happening to me before, and the feeling is absolutely awful.
However, God is above it all...it is so human of us to think that God would be capable of leaving us as well when things get bad. The bond between a mother and her child is something that cannot even be defined...unconditional love doesn't even quite cut it. The fact that God is BEYOND that kind of love is past my comprehension. However, it is something that I take deep comfort in. Those two lines, "Even if she should forget, I will never forget you." SO powerful. When I read it, a random song popped into my head that I think fits quite well...it's a song that the Liverpool soccer club fans sing to their team every single game.
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma3Nax8yyOE
It's such a good feeling to know that God is always there for me. No matter what the situation or circumstance.
2. It's so easy to get caught up in matters that distract us from putting God first. When I first read this, I thought that Jesus was speaking about not worrying about material things, which of course is a nice reminder (although I don't focus a lot on that as it is).
However, when I read it again, Jesus makes the statement not to worry about eating, or drinking. Those are things we see in life as absolutely BASIC, things that we need to do in order to survive. It may seem odd that Jesus is saying not to really worry about those things...however, I think the point Jesus is driving here is to put God first beyond all other things in our life. I need to learn how to look at the world through a filter of Jesus and his teachings to really grasp what is important.
The last two lines, especially the 2nd to last one, are some of my favorite bible passages. I used to worry SO MUCH about little things when I was a child...if I got an assignment done right, if my parents were going to get in an argument, if I was "cool enough" at school...thank goodness I've grown out of worrying so much. However, the things I do worry about nowadays are almost all things that I have absolutely NO control over, things that I wish I could change and rearrange but is not within my own power. Instead of allowing this worry to wash over and consume me, I need to and have been working on letting go...letting go of these problems and allowing God to take over. Once He does and I allow God to really be lens of how I see things, my life will be better for it.