Survival?

 "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?"  

Matthew 6:25-26

Some years ago I wrote down a prayer based on what Jesus was saying in the above verses. I think it really fits for this coming year, for every year. It is my prayer for myself and for you.

"Father, deliver us from our survival mentality, living from hand to mouth. Awaken in us a desire to live by Your will, as Your child, in Your love." 

Too many of us live in survival mode. We just hope to make it through a day, a week, a year, with as little difficulty and pain as possible. We're hoping to get through, to survive. We don't really openly say this, but our "spiritual body language" betrays us. It comes out in our attitudes, our thoughts, and our words. We sing about victory in Jesus, but we too often don't really expect that, and we rarely live in it. We talk about being "more than conquerors," but most weeks we feel like the world and life have run over us.

We speak and preach about being "children of the King," but live more like orphans. We worry about never having enough, and always fear that our resources are on the verge of drying up. We live hand to mouth in our own strength, instead of heart to heart in His. We think that this is just the way of things in this fallen world. His promises of abundance are true and we believe them, but we see it is a future promise, realized in eternity. We struggle to believe that eternal life begins now, as do the riches He promises, and those riches are far more about our spirit, emotions, and minds than they are about dollars and cents. We can live richly even when our bank accounts might be showing more zeros than anything else.

For you, for me, for all of us, may He awaken in us a desire to live richly in Him.To realize who we are in Jesus Christ. To have as our experience each day, living in His will, as His children, in His love. To know this, to live this brings the faith that overcomes the world. We really do live as "more than conquerors," and not as hand to mouth survivors. This is the life we were created for in Christ. May we live it out fully in this coming year. 

Blessings,
Pastor O