First on the List

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading titled, First on the List, was written by Adam R. Holes. The morning commenced like a track meet. I practically jumped out of bed, launching into the teeth of the day's deadlines. Get the kids to school. Check. Get to work.

Check. I blasted full throttle into my writing to-do list, in which personal and professional tasks tumbled together in an avalanche-like litany. Number 13, edit article. 14, clean office. 15, strategic team planning. 16, write tech blog. 17, clean basement.

18, pray. By the time I got to number 18, I'd remembered that I needed God's help, but I'd gotten that far before it even occurred to me that I was going at it alone, trying to manufacture my own momentum. Jesus knew.

He knew our days would crash one into another, a sea of ceaseless urgency. So he instructs in Matthew 6, seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. It's natural to hear Jesus' words as a command, and they are.

But there's more here, an invitation. Jesus invites us to exchange the world's frantic anxiety for a life of trust, day by day. God, by his grace, helps us all of our days, even when we get to number 18 on our list, before we remember to see life from his perspective.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Matthew chapter 6, verses 25 through 34. 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 clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow? They do not labor or spin, yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your invitation to relinquish and give you our anxiety and to embrace the life of abundant provision you offer to us each and every day. Thank you so much for loving and caring for us. We trust you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. I'm Stephen Tabor, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.