April 01 2025

Tuesday April 01

“Do Not Fear, Little Flock…”

Luke 12:22-34

22 Then He said to His disciples, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. 23 Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? 25 And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 26 If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? 29 And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. 30 For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. 31 But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. 32 Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Again, I want to thank all my dear friends who responded to our pleas for prayer for my grandson Luke and his extensive brain surgery this past Friday! The surgery and the recovery went well, and “Praise the LORD”, he was able to go home yesterday afternoon! Your prayers, and the Lord’s miraculous healing hand, made this possible! Thank you! Thank you!

It is amazing to me how this passage in Luke 12:22-34, along with Dr. Towns devotion today for April 01, from 365 Ways to Know God, entitled: JESUS: THE LORD OF PEACE, is exactly what we needed for this period of time, and crisis in our lives. God’s timing and reminders are always exactly on time!!!! You can always trust Him!

So far in Luke 12, we have learned that we should “beware of hypocrisy”, we should “beware of covetousness”, and we should “beware of worry”. It is interesting to me how all of these sins are linked to each other. And for sure, hypocrisy, pretending to be something that we are not, and covetousness, lusting and desiring things that we really don’t need, always lead to this incapacitating emotion that we call worry! They “strangle” and destroy us, they deceive us into believing a false view of life and of God. We are attempting to live a life that will never ever satisfy or fulfill us.

Not only does worry destroy and deceive us, but it can also deform us. It keeps us from growing and it makes us like the unsaved in the world (Luke 12:30). In short, worry is unchristian; worry is a sin. How can we witness to a lost world and encourage them to put faith in Jesus Christ if we ourselves are doubting God and worrying? Is it not inconsistent to preach faith and yet not practice it? The late chaplain of the United States Senate, Peter Marshall, once prayed "that ulcers would not become the badge of our faith." Too often they are!

How do we win over worry? The first step is to realize that God knows our needs, so we can trust Him to meet them. We are sheep in His little flock, children in His family, and servants in His kingdom; and He will see to it that our needs are fully met. It is His pleasure to give us His kingdom, so will He not give us everything that we need? Romans 8:31-32 reminds us of a great promise: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

But God's pleasures and our treasures must go together. We must look at earth from heaven's point of view and make sure that we put God's kingdom first in everything. The main question is, "Where is your heart?" If our hearts are fixed on the transient things of earth, then we will always worry. But if we are fixed on the eternal, then God's peace will guard our minds and hearts (Philippians 4:6-9). We must "hang loose" when it comes to this world's goods and be willing even to sell what we have in order to help others (Acts 2:44-45; 4:34-35). It is not wrong to own things so long as things do not own us.

Worry always leads to fear, and that is why Jesus, in verse 32 added, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Worry is proof that our “faith is little” and that we need to believe God’s Old Testament promise in Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”

We are our Father’s “little flock” that He dearly loves and takes pleasure in! You can trust Him to care for you today!

God bless!