Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Psalms 131-133
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 12:22-30
Jesus: (then, to His disciples) This is why I keep telling you not to worry about anything in life—about what you’ll eat, about how you’ll clothe your body. Life is more than food, and the body is more than fancy clothes. Think about those crows flying over there: do they plant and harvest crops? Do they own silos or barns? Look at them fly. It looks like God is taking pretty good care of them, doesn’t it? Remember that you are more precious to God than birds! Which one of you can add a single hour to your life or 18 inches to your height by worrying really hard? If worry can’t change anything, why do you do it so much?
Think about those beautiful wild lilies growing over there. They don’t work up a sweat toiling for needs or wants—they don’t worry about clothing. Yet the great King Solomon never had an outfit that was half as glorious as theirs!
Look at the grass growing over there. One day it’s thriving in the fields. The next day it’s being used as fuel. If God takes such good care of such transient things, how much more you can depend on God to care for you, weak in faith as you are. Don’t reduce your life to the pursuit of food and drink; don’t let your mind be filled with anxiety. People of the world who don’t know God pursue these things, but you have a Father caring for you, a Father who knows all your needs.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
We worry so much about material things in this country, don’t we? But we get caught up worrying about the wrong things. We worry about how to make car payments and house payments and how to pay for that next vacation or the one we had last year because we charged it on our credit cards. We worry about the debt we’ve accumulated because we wanted everything our parents had but we want it now so we bought it without the cash or the income to pay for it. Now we’re in terrible financial shape and worry how we will put food on the table.
The problem we have today is we spend $1.10 for every $1.00 we earn. Until we figure out that you can’t make ends meet until you spend less than you make, we’ll keep getting ourselves in trouble. That’s the problem with our government and has been for a lot of years. That’s why we have a $17 trillion deficit. Our elected officials don’t know how to stay within a budget. They keep spending more of our money than we give them. So my grandchildren have a government tax bill of $48,000 each.
So how do we get out of this state of worry that plagued the people around Jesus and drives so many of the people around us to ulcers and anti-depressants? It really is easy, you know. Two words fix the problem but it takes discipline that most of us in this generation just don’t have. We don’t like it because it doesn’t satisfy that selfish desire that eats at us and is the root of all sin. We want what we want and don’t want to listen to anything that doesn’t feed that selfish desire.
So what are those two words that fix the finance problem that most people have today? STOP SPENDING!
But how do we do that, you ask. I know, you still have to eat and clothe yourself and have a place to live. But let me ask you a few questions that you might not like.
Do you need the fast-food you eat three or four times a week or would a sandwich made from home and taken to work nourish you just as well if not better? You can buy a week’s worth of homemade sandwiches for the price of one fast-food meal. How about Starbucks or other specialty coffees? Do you frequent those places everyday or even once or twice a week? The average latte is $5. Even once a week is a car payment every year. And if you go every day, that’s a car payment a month spent on coffee.
Then where do you get your clothes? Did you know that many of the second hand stores have designer label clothes people donated or sold that have never been worn, that still have the tags on them with prices 10% or less of the original price? How would you like to get a $500 dress for $10? They are available if you look. And the last time I walk through Neiman-Marcus, the ‘in thing’ was for all the blue jeans and shirts to look like they had been worn-out and thrown in the trash then pulled out and put ridiculously high price tags on them anyway.
See, we get so hung up on fashion, cars, houses, just stuff, that we forget that God will take care of all that if we trust Him with ourselves. He never lets us down. We just have to get our eyes on the right prize. That doesn’t mean we can be frivolous and expect God to provide. I think He wants us to be good stewards of the things He provides including finances. Jesus talks about money five times as much as He talks about prayer. But He does so because we can become so enamored by the things of the world we can lose sight of what’s really important and it isn’t money. It isn’t stuff. The important thing is Him.
Focus on Him. Be disciplined in your approach to life. Read Proverbs and let the principles of life that Solomon and the Wise men who wrote those principles laid out for us soak into your life and live by them. If you do, you’ll find that life works so much better. You’ll find that you don’t need to worry about the stuff that most people worry about every day because you’ll know God will put the important things in place for you. You can focus on what’s really important and that is worshiping and serving Him and working through His plan for your life in service to those around you.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.