The Cares of This Life
You may have a desire to do God’s work and to serve Him in ministry, but other needs may seem to be taking priority. You may have thought, “How can I get involved in ministry to others when I have so many needs myself?”
Do you have physical limitations? Health problems?
Do you have financial pressures? Money problems?
Are there problems in your family? Problems in relationships?
Do you have a difficult situation at your job? Or do you need a job?
Are you struggling in life?
Are things missing from your life?
God’s Response:
God invites you to cast your cares on Him, because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).
It is natural to seek first to meet our own needs and the needs of our family members, but God invites us to make an exchange. He invites us to cast our concerns on Him, and He promises to care for us better than we could take care of ourselves. In exchange, He desires for us to take on His concerns, His priorities, and seek His Kingdom first. This is the message Jesus gave in Matthew 6:25–34 (NIRV):
“I tell you, do not worry. Don’t worry about your life and what you will eat or drink. And don’t worry about your body and what you will wear. Isn’t there more to life than eating? Aren’t there more important things for the body than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They don’t plant or gather crops. They don’t put away crops in storerooms. But your Father who is in heaven feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than they are? Can you add even one hour to your life by worrying?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the wild flowers grow. They don’t work or make clothing. But here is what I tell you. Not even Solomon in all his royal robes was dressed like one of these flowers. If that is how God dresses the wild grass, won’t he dress you even better? Your faith is so small! After all, the grass is here only today. Tomorrow it is thrown into the fire. So don’t worry. Don’t say, ‘What will we eat?’ Or, ‘What will we drink?’ Or, ‘What will we wear?’ People who are ungodly run after all those things. Your Father who is in heaven knows that you need them. But put God’s kingdom first. Do what he wants you to do. Then all those things will also be given to you. So don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
In the first chapter of Haggai, God exhorts us not to neglect the needs of His house. We may think that we must give priority to meeting our own needs and taking care of our own houses—our own families. In truth, the harder we work at meeting our own needs and desires, and those of our families, the further behind we often seem to get. If we honestly consider our situations, we are inadequate to fully provide for our own needs and desires, and those of our families.
God never equipped us to do that. It was never His plan for us to be self-sufficient. If we will take Him up on His offer to exchange our cares for His, He will take care of us and our families better than we ever could! Here is how God described the need for this exchange in the first chapter of Haggai:
The Lord who rules over all says, “The people of Judah are saying, ‘The time hasn’t come yet for the Lord’s temple to be rebuilt.’”
So the message came to me from the Lord. He said, “My temple is still destroyed. In spite of that, you are living in your houses that have beautiful wooden walls.” The Lord who rules over all says, “Think carefully about how you are living. You have planted many seeds. But the crops you have gathered are small. So you eat. But you never have enough. You drink. But you are never full. You put your clothes on. But you are not warm. You earn your pay. But it will not buy everything you need.” He continues, “Think carefully about how you are living. Go up into the mountains. Bring logs down. Use them to rebuild my house. Then I will enjoy it. And you will honor me,” says the Lord.
“You expected a lot. But you can see what a small amount it turned out to be,” announces the Lord who rules over all. “I blew away what you brought home. Why? Because my temple is still destroyed. In spite of that, each one of you is busy with your own house.
“So because of what you have done, the heavens have held back the dew. And the earth has not produced its crops. I ordered the rain not to fall on the fields and mountains.
“Then the ground did not produce any grain. There were not enough grapes to make fresh wine. The trees did not bear enough olives to make oil. People and cattle suffered. All of your hard work failed.”—Haggai 1:2–11 (NIRV)
It is the divine order for the servant to serve the master first. It is only after the master is satisfied that the servant will have his needs satisfied.
“Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down to eat’? But will he not say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink’?”—Luke 17:7–8 (NASB)
This was the divine order that Jesus observed.
Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?”
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”—John 4:31–34 (NASB)
When Jesus was in the wilderness, Satan tempted him to give in and satisfy his own needs prematurely (Matthew 4:3), but Jesus refused. A great victory for the Kingdom of God was at stake. After Satan’s temptations were overcome and the victory was won, Jesus not only ate, but He was served by angels! God personally took care of Him (Matthew 4:11).
If you will trust God with your personal needs and seek His Kingdom first, He will honor that by providing what you need in return. God invites you to make an exchange.
This does not mean that we neglect the needs of our families, because the Bible warns that, “If anyone does not take care of his own relatives, especially his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1 Timothy 5:8 ISV). However, If you will give priority to seeking God’s Kingdom, and focusing on His concerns, He will personally take care of you and your family in return.
My God Shall Supply All Your Need
It was the morning of my final exam in statistics at the University of Texas at Arlington. Before I went on to class, I planned to stop by a poor widow’s house and leave some money with her. She was experiencing difficult financial circumstances, so I put some money in an envelope and labeled it “from Jesus.” I drove to her house, stuck it in her screen door, and drove on to the university, which was about thirty minutes away.
After I parked my car and began walking across campus to my class, I realized to my horror that I had forgotten my calculator!
In this particular statistics class, every problem involved adding up large columns of numbers and then performing various calculations on the sums of those large numbers. Without a calculator, I would be forced to add up all of those numbers by hand, which would take much more time. I was hit with the realization that I would never be able to finish the test in the allotted time.
After all of the time and effort I had put into this class, it now seemed inevitable that I would fail the final exam and possibly fail the class!
As I thought through my options, I knew there would not be enough time for me to drive back home to get my calculator. There were no stores open this early in the morning, so I couldn’t buy a new calculator. I didn’t know anyone who lived in the area who might be able to bring me a calculator. There seemed to be no options available to me. I walked to the testing room, resigned to the realization that I would probably fail the exam.
I was one of the last students to enter the testing room. The test-takers were all sitting at large round tables. Few empty seats were left. As I took a seat at a table, I was surprised to see that one of the students had brought an extra calculator, and that she was sitting right beside me! We were not friends, but she let me use her extra calculator. I finished the test before she did, handed the calculator back to her, and went on my way. I passed the final exam and ended up with an “A” in the class.
Why would anyone bring an extra calculator to take a test?
I’m convinced that because I took steps to seek first the Kingdom of God and to help provide for the needs of this widow, God made sure that my needs were provided for.
“Here are the kinds of beliefs that God our Father accepts as pure and without fault. When widows and children who have no parents are in trouble, take care of them. And keep yourselves from being polluted by the world.”—James 1:27 (NIRV)
Because of that experience, and others since then, I have come to understand that as long as I seek God’s Kingdom first, and live according to His principles as described in the Bible, my needs will always be met.
That’s the way it’s been for me. And that’s the way it can be for you. God’s principles work for everyone who applies them.
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