Matthew 6:25

 "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 important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

Unless God is THE center of your life everything falls apart.

We all have moments when we wish we were living in our past “good old days.” When I think of the “good old days” I am reminded of my childhood when I was in my fist grade of primary school. Our teacher taught us a song, which we would sing every morning. The lyrics went like this: “Good morning, good morning, this is a lovely day. Good morning, good morning, we are to dance and play.” And true to the song we indeed danced and played. For us every morning was a good morning, why, because we had our friends around, the sun was bright and we had a spacious open ground to play on. We did not care that we had no shoes on our feet; we sat on the dusty floors and had no backpack (we didn’t even know there were such things as backpacks!)

Now gone are the good old days where we had great joys in the simplest things. I now have enough things to worry about: My kids have to go to school. I have assignments to take care of and my future ministry…my “to worry about” list is endless… Do you, like me, find yourself with so much to worry about than to be joyful about? Do you wake up and exclaim “wow this is a great day, good morning, we are do dance and play” like my elementary school song said. Or does your alarm go off every morning and you’re like “oh boy, it is another dreary day again. If you, like me, are tempted to dread another day that comes your way then today’s scripture is an appropriate reminder for us.

Matthew 6:25 says "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 important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

As I read this scripture, I find asking myself, why I should not worry. Maybe you are asking the same question. “Why should I not worry when for the past five years I have been working on my marriage with hope that it will get better, but now it is at a brink of breaking?” “Is there reason why I should not worry when the stock market is doing so badly and each day I am losing my money?” “Should I not worry about my ministry, or future relationships?” Jesus’ call for us not to worry seems too radical or outright unrealistic for us to attain in this real world.  Let’s face it; this world is unfair! Wherever we turn, we seem to see justifications for worry than not worrying.

Are few questions may guide us to understand how we can live a worry-free lifestyle:

1. Where is your heart? The heart of worry is the heart (²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also) Or to put it another way, where have you made your investments?

2. The second question is that of worldview, perspective or life philosophy. What is the most important thing in your life? (²² "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.) –What influences you to make the judgments or choices you make?

3. Thirdly there is a question of who or what the object of our worship and devotion is. Are you serving God or money (material things, stuff…)? (²⁴ "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.) – is it surprising that Jesus contradicts God and money? 

I would like to propose to you that unless God is the center of your life everything falls apart

In the recent times we have seen the very foundations of the earth shaken: the tsunami, earthquakes, hurricanes, 9/11, financial meltdowns. These are no longer biblical parables but they are concrete situations that we go through and struggle with. We see our loved ones dying of cancer, or HIV/AIDS, our businesses failing, our marriages breaking. The very foundations of what we trusted in falling. You see when all these things happen the greatest question is: Who is your center, because unless God is the center of your life everything falls apart.