Day 21 | 40-Day Lenten Fast & Devotional

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. -Matthew 6:33-34

Great morning, good morning, good morning. Grace and peace be unto all of you, my Father's children.  It is in fact day 21 in our 40 day Lenten devotional. And it's Friday, it's Friday. This week we've been focused on discernment. We've taken a look at many different areas of discernment.  Learning how to be wise, learning how  to be patient, but ultimately, I would say more importantly, learning how to truly trust in God, an easier said than done concept. So today I want to take a look at the gospel according to Matthew, the sixth chapter and the 33rd and 34th verse. Prayerfully it's familiar, but let's put a new lens on it. Matthew 6:33.

“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  worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of his own.” Good God from Zion. If this is not the realest and most relevant potent word for us today, because many of us can definitely attest to a place where we have literally not seek God, sought God first.

It's hard because this passages when Christ is speaking because it's in red print specifically to his disciples as it relates to how they move how they operate. Have you ever been there? Where worry had literally gripped you, you could not sleep at night. Found yourself overeating or under-eating. Found yourself restless about things oftentimes which were outside of your control. About things that you could not move the needle.

So many of us had to learn almost in this season how to turn the TV off, turn the TV off because there was so much coming at us. There was so much going on. There was so much that we were taking into a system that we really had to put into God's hands that eventually at some point he's like, actually got to turn this off. The more news that I find out, the more stressed that I become. What's to happen next? And God said, listen, at the end of the day, I've got things under control and my ways are not your way. So even in the places that you cannot understand, that you don't see, then trust me, I'm working. He says, listen, especially as it relates to stuff that hasn't happened yet, we worry about things which haven't taken place, which haven't moved. And he's like, look, I need you to seek my kingdom first. Seek the kingdom first. He said, I love the part when he says, listen, don't worry about them all. You know why? Because tomorrow got enough trouble in it for tomorrow. He says there's a reasonable proportion of worry for tomorrow. You do not need to access and or apply that on the day.

It's the same concept that was used as it related to the children of Israel when they were coming out of Egyptian bondage and God had to feed them by manna. He says listen, they gave them daily bread. It was daily, but they couldn't, they didn't have enough for the next day. They could only gather enough for that day. I just don't worry about it. I'm going to give you some fresh mercy tomorrow. Fresh understanding tomorrow. But what I need you to do is focus in on today and seeking my face.

So what does it mean to seek his face? I'm almost done. Watch. Prayer. Meditation. Sometimes seeking God firstis acknowledging  not only his power but his greatness, his omnipresence, and taking a moment to say, I can't do this myself, but I serve a God that's never  failed me. It's never failed. And so whatever I think might be the worst case scenario, God's got it under control.  And so therefore, I'm going to walk and operate with a spirit of wise discernment to say God's got this. And if there's anything that I've been crystal clear about, it's recognizing that don't nobody got you like him. And so, as we move forward for the rest of this wonderful weekend that we have planned, my prayer is that God give you a spirit. That is solely trusted and focused on him. It's possibly the most peaceful way to move forward by faith and by grace.

I pray this word touches each of you. I pray that you have an incredible weekend. Again, I look forward to everybody, again, as we continue with our devotional on Monday. Tomorrow we have the prayer call, so make sure you can tune into that as well. And of course, Sunday service.  God bless you.Have a phenomenal Friday.