Take No Thought

[Rom. 2:28–3:18; Matt. 6:31–34; 7:9–11] Take no thought (Matt. 6:31). Then how is one to live? We have to eat, drink, and wear clothes. But the Sav­iour does not say, “do noth­ing,” but rath­er, take no thought. Do not wea­ry your­self with care that con­sumes you both day and night, and gives you not a mo­ment of peace. Such care is a sin­ful dis­ease. It shows that a man is re­ly­ing up­on him­self and has for­got­ten God; that he has lost hope in the Prov­i­dence of God, wants to ar­range ev­ery­thing for him­self sole­ly by his own ef­forts, to pro­cure all that is nec­es­sary, and to pre­serve what he has pro­cured by his own means. He has be­come chained in his heart to his prop­er­ty, and thinks to rest on as if it were a sol­id foun­da­tion. Love of pos­ses­sions has bound him and he on­ly thinks of how to get more in­to his hands. This mam­mon has re­placed God for him. Work by all means, but do not wea­ry your­self with evil cares. Hope for ev­ery suc­cess from God and com­mit your lot in­to His hands. Ac­cept all that you ob­tain as a gift from the Lord’s hand, and wait with a firm hope that He con­tin­ue His gen­er­ous giv­ing. Know that if God so de­sires, a rich man can lose all he has in one min­ute. All is de­cay and dust. Is it worth it to wea­ry your­self for that? So, take no care!