Sunday, February 28, 2010

Where are you finding your identity?

I led Bible study last week on the topic of worry. Not alarmingly, the main text we looked at was Matthew 6:25-34. We talked about reasons why shouldn't worry, like that it's sin because it really signifies a lack of trust and satisfaction in the sovereignty of God, the fact that it's futile (v. 27 "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?) and the general idea that we can trust in God (the One who created and sustains the entire universe).

I think that there is an often overlooked reason in this text that encompasses all reasons why we shouldn't worry: our identity. Check out verses 26 and 30.

26"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?"

30"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, O you of little faith?"

God feeds the birds and dresses grass better than a king in all his splendor, but they're not his children. But if we are in Christ, we are. And there's our identity. If we see ourselves as children of God, why should we worry?

Matthew 7:9-11, take it away... "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

On a side note- I've been officially accepted for a full-time campus ministry internship with Campus Crusade for Christ at Ohio University next year. Thanks to everyone who has been praying!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The more you love, the more you struggle with this! We look forward to conversations with you on this topic when your baby has a temp of 104 or your parents can't seem to remember to turn off the stove. (Closer than you think :)