June 25th

June 25th      

More sermon on the mount.

Matthew 6:25-34 “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? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Worry activates and strengthens the fear center in your brain. So this passage is not only about having faith that God will provide all that we NEED but it is also about creating and strengthening a healthy brain which impacts our life in so many ways. Worry begets worry and fear begets fear and anxiety begets anxiety. So your happiness and perspective are threatened by worry, anxiety and fear. Our best practice is to give the Lord everything that worries us.

Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Be anxious for nothing but give it all to Him, talk to the Lord about it and let Him give you His peace. His peace strengthens the part of your brain that is responsible for joy, wellbeing and resilience (ability to handle stress.)

Matthew 7:1-5 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Now at first these passages may seem like they are just telling us to be more loving by not judging others. And sure, that is true, we should be loving and full of grace and not judgy. However, there is much more to it. This affects us spiritually and physically in ways that affect our whole life. It is about focus. If we have a critical mindset and our focus is on what others are NOT doing right, we are activating the wrong part of our brain again. You say, “I can’t help it, they are just a bunch of idiots.” Well I feel ya, but, everytime I want to say that I imagine that is what God could say about the whole human race. The reality is that they are lost so we can’t expect more than the worst from them, and, that falls on us, are we faithfully praying for the lost? Second, if they aren’t lost then they are truly our brother or sister in Christ, in which case, this passage applies even more, and the end message is still to pray for them. There is more though.

In addition, focus and attention shapes our “reality.” What you pay attention to gets bigger or more prominent (in our brains, not necessarily in reality.) For example, we had a pastor one time that said that he never realized how many black Tahoes were on the road until he got a black Tahoe. This is a great example that holds true. In reality the number of black Tahoes on the road didn’t suddenly change when he bought his, he just started to notice them after he bought his. So what we pay attention to shapes what we think is reality. The reality is that our brothers and sisters in Christ are just as messed up as we are right now; and when we focus on or pay attention to their faults it shapes a false reality in our brains. We start to notice more and more faults and it fools us into thinking they are worse off than we are.

So bottom line is that we have so much more to learn and gain from the sermon on the mount than we initially thought. Jesus in all His wisdom was speaking health to us, both spiritual and physical wellbeing!

Jesus, thank you! Thank you for bringing this to my attention and help me to give you all of my worry, anxiety, fear, and critical mindset so that you can give me your peace. Help me to see others and myself through your eyes. I want your reality, not my own false reality. Help me to walk in the full Truth so that I can have your abundant life and be your light.