Take No Thought For Your Life

     Matthew 6:25-34 "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

     I am continually amazed at how God has taken care of us. The right provisions always come at the right time.

     Here are just three stories of items He has provided along our deputation journey:

~ On one trip, our family was running low on a few items. One was hairspray. Jason asked why I had forgotten to get more on our last trip to the store. I joked with him that it was like the widow's jar: God would give us just enough hairspray for what we needed that day. The other item we needed was toothbrushes: all three kiddos could not find theirs (I did wonder if they had planned that... Hmmm). It was a Wednesday and after service, one lady said their church had a mission's closet and took us to visit it. There on the shelf was one can of hairspray and a box of toothbrushes. Yay, just in time, Lord.

~ I am a Goodwill shopper. I love to shop there! A particular blue floral printed skirt I had gotten at one such thrift store became my favorite and wore it often. That is until it ripped and could not be mended by me. Hey, I can slap a button on a garment just fine but mending tears and hemming are just not my specialties. So, on our last trip, I left the skirt at home thinking I could wear it around the house to clean in. We traveled extremely north to the upper peninsula of Michigan for a week. The pastor's wife at the church we were visiting told me she had some brand new skirts and let me try some on. Among the skirts was a blue floral skirt that fit perfectly! Yay! When I returned home and my around the house day came, my old skirt was rendered usable no more. I was able to throw it away with no remorse and put on the new skirt God had provided me.

~ Micah was in need of a new pair of glasses. Jason was in Hungary and I was watching the money very carefully since he would be two weeks without meetings. I went ahead and paid the $40 for the glasses, but was worried we wouldn't make it to the next meeting when Jason returned. God showed me how wrong I was to worry when he used a sweet couple in my home church to provide $40. Thank you, again, for providing, Lord.

     When Jesus preached His sermon on the mount, the crowd was filled with people who were worried about making ends meet just as there are today. But Jesus told them to "Take no thought for your life". He reminded them that the birds and the lilies don't worry because God takes care of them, so why should the people worry? 

     Right now, we have a vehicle situation that could be a big worry seeing how much we rely on a vehicle to get us around during deputation. But I will choose not to worry. God's got this! 

     ...And that will just be one more provision to add to the list of things we can give Him glory for!