And he said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! Luke 12: 22-24
What do you fix your eyes on? Food, water, shelter, clothing, etc.? Instead, we must fix our attention on the kingdom of God and not food, water, shelter, clothes, ect. People can attain it not by increasing their worrying but by intensifying their faith for it.
Do we not have a responsibility to think about what we are going to eat and how we are going to support those who depend on us? What resemblance is there between the picture of nature it presents and the reality that we experience in our day? Is it possible for a person to live without any possessions at all?
According to the commentary by Fracios Boron, the ethical and didactic elements are rooted in the good news of the kingdom. God asks us to be concerned with his business, because he has concerned himself with ours by sending his Son to share our condition. Wisdom acknowledges trouble as being the common lot of human beings and recognizes the fact that daily life, threatened by dangers and death, is the occasion for all kinds of apprehensions. Such wisdom suggests a rest that stems from simple living and, if possible, the absence of worries. The orientation of one’s life is determinative. When it is oriented toward God, one’s existence can be blessed and one’s worries banished. Such wisdom is, however, obliged to recognize that happiness does not depend on our efforts alone. It confidently offers to submit itself to God. This modern life is in the grips of anxiety confronted with its responsibilities and of hesitations in the presence of its power. At the level of the individual, we have solitude, lack of communication, and an irrational and uncontrollable rise in the level of the anxiety that invades our soul and blocks any reflection or action. Worries are to be found everywhere.
In the past, food, clothing, and shelter constituted the triad of indispensable possessions. Jesus invites us to not worry about what we will eat, nor about what we will wear. He thus prepares the way for the saying about the fundamental concern, that is, the kingdom of God. But he does not simply contrast two kinds of things to desire; he also distinguishes between different attitudes: unhealthy worries, on the one hand, and legitimate seeking, on the other. In his eyes, a care is illegitimate when it rises to the highest level of our concerns and obscures everything else, and when it causes human beings to be wrapped up in themselves, thus forcing them to neglect God and their neighbors.
What is your mind focus on more: God or possessions?
Dear Heavenly Father,
I pray that we will trust in you more and not worry about the possessions we have here on earth. I pray that we will be more focused on you and your kingdom and what you want to have done here on earth.
In Jesus Name Amen
