Good morning! I am so glad you have decided to join us at Harding Street Church of Christ to worship our God in spirit and in truth. If you were not with us last Wednesday evening for our time of praise and worship in the annex, then you missed a treat. We heard a great devotional from brother Trent about some topics that we don’t often talk about in the Church of Christ. Then we invited the men in attendance to lead in singing, prayer, or reading of the scriptures. We had some amazing singing together, all lifting our voices to praise God, and heard some great readings from His word. One that stuck out to me was given by brother Reginald Cunningham whose family has been attending with us on Wednesday evening for some time now. He read to us first from 1 King 19:1-8. The prophet Elijah was running for his life because his life was being threatened by Jezebel. Elijah had run until he was out of energy and was ready to give up. He accepted death and went to sleep under a tree. But, an angel of the Lord appeared before Elijah and told him, “Arise and eat,” and Elijah awoke to see that there was food and water prepared next to him. After eating the food provided by God, Elijah had strength to continue for forty days and forty nights.
Brother Cunningham then brought our attention to Matthew 6:25-34, a scripture that those of us who study God’s word probably already know pretty well. These verses show Jesus teaching for us to not be worried about things of this world. He says do not worry about what to eat, drink, or wear because our life is about more than food and clothing. As we learn from both of these passages of scripture, God will provide for those things which we need. God provides for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, so would He not much more provide for man who He created in His image, and those who chose to follow Him? We are not called to be people who worry about things, or to be anxious because it will gain us nothing. As Jesus says in Matthew 6:27, “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?”
We also must learn to look at blessings as God would view them. Sometimes we pray for cake, but when God gives us butter, eggs, flour, icing and an oven we are unwilling to bake the cake. God will provide for us, but we must be willing to take that which He provides and put it into work. We may not wake up to a warm cake and pitcher of water on our bedside table like Elijah did, but we will wake up with bodies that can work, kitchens to cook in, stores to buy groceries, and a God who loves us. Let us all strive to worry less and trust in God more.
-Geoffrey Bane
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