The Sermon on the Mount: A 21-Day Guide to the Greatest Sermon Ever PreachedНамуна

Birds and Flowers

So far, we’ve talked about how to practice, pray, and prioritize in ways that honor God. Today, we’re looking at another way Jesus calls us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Let’s discover what it looks like to trust Him fully.

“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?” Matthew 6:25-30 NIV

When our full trust is in God, we can walk through life confidently and securely. When we trust in anything other than God to provide for us, we end up with worry and insecurity. What happens when the resources you trust run out? Where do you turn when the money you trust disappears? What happens when you reach the end of your abilities you’ve put so much trust in? Putting our faith in anything other than God will always lead to worry, because anything other than God is limited and temporary.

But, Jesus doesn’t tell us to trust God just because He’s got unlimited resources—even though He does. He’s the Creator and King of the cosmos. And He doesn’t tell us to trust God just because He’s more powerful than anyone else—even though He is. (Again, Creator and King of the cosmos!) He tells us to trust God because God values us more than anything else.

This is a big deal. God, our Heavenly Father, loves us and wants to provide for us.

This part of the sermon is often where people feel like Jesus is finally lightening up. But really, it’s the exact opposite. Jesus is cutting deep into the lie that keeps so many people from experiencing kingdom life. He’s launching an attack on the devil’s oldest trick—to deceive us into believing that God is out to limit our happiness and therefore can’t be trusted.

This was the lie that the cunning and crafty serpent used to cause Adam and Eve to rebel against God and do the one thing they were told not to.

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5 NIV

The devil tricked Adam and Eve into believing that becoming like God was something they had to take for themselves. In their desperate attempt to seize power, they lost out on the greatest gift of all: friendship with God—a God so kind and generous that He had already created them to be like Him.

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness … So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:26-27 NIV

Had Adam and Eve chosen to trust God, not only would their friendship with Him have remained whole, but, in time, He would have given them the very thing they sought to take for themselves—knowledge of good and evil.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola once wrote, “Sin is unwillingness to trust that what God wants for me is only my deepest happiness.”

Can you see it? If God values the birds enough to take care of them, how much more will He take care of you, His son or daughter? If God cares enough about the flowers of the field to clothe them, how much more will He clothe you, as one made in His own likeness?

What did Jesus say?

God is a good Father who takes care of His kids. You can trust Him because He proved that you are more valuable to Him than anything else.

What did Jesus do?

Jesus trusted the Father. He trusted Him so much that He was willing to go to His death to accomplish His Father’s good plan for the world.

Jesus showed us that obedience is trust in action. You can say you trust someone all day long, but until you actually do what they say, you’re just blowing smoke.

How can I apply this to my life today?

Today, commit to fighting the good fight of trusting God more than you did a day ago. Listen to what He says and do what He asks, because obedience is trust in action.

Let’s close with this prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for being a good Father who takes care of me. Please speak to me today. Help me to hear Your voice and do what You ask. Give me opportunities to put my trust in You into action today. And please help me weed out the lies I’ve believed about You that produce worry in me. In Jesus’ name, amen.