IN our last meditation we began to look at how Jesus directs us to combat worry and avoid the needs of the body in this world taking over our lives. We have heard Jesus warn us that part of our problem concerning worry is that we waste time worrying over things that we do not need. We also saw how Jesus reminds us that God is our heavenly Father, and having given us life he will certainly not allow our lives to be deprived of the essentials that we need for life. Then we saw how Jesus seeks to illustrate what he is telling us by pointing to the birds. When we look at them we find that they get fed even though they don?t work, and it is God who provides for them. If God looks after the birds he will certainly look after people he has chosen to love and to save. We finished last time in considering verse 27 which is where Jesus shows us that worry is unproductive and a waste of time, and he shows us why - he shows that worry can?t achieve anything, it only hinders us and prevents us from doing things.

Jesus now continues to help us see that we can trust God in his ability to provide for us, and in his desire to provide for us.

Jesus directs our attention to lilies. There are two things about them Jesus calls our attention to. One is the lily is extremely beautiful, and the other is the practical shortness of the life of the lily. The beauty of the lily when it is in full bloom surpasses anything else in beauty. The best kingly glory on earth can?t match the glorious beauty of the lily flower. And yet all this beauty seems to go to waste. The lily flower dies quite soon after it has been born. So the lily is a thing of great beauty, but of so little importance in the scheme of things, that the life of each lily flower is comparatively small. Though so relatively unimportant the lily is cared for by God. Even though the flower dies, yet he still cares for the lily, and sees that it has its moment of glory. If God cares for the lily, which is so unimportant in the scheme of things, then we are assured that God will provide for his children whom he has redeemed, and not allow them to starve or be deprived. This analogy of the lily takes us further than the analogy earlier of the birds. This analogy of the lily reveals the bounty of God. God not only feeds and looks after the lily, but he pours out great beauty on the lily. How much more will God care for his chosen ones whom he has determined to love eternally.

This brings us to the consideration of faith and the lack of it in our lives. Somehow we find it easier to believe God concerning our eternal salvation than to trust God for our daily bread. Jesus addresses this problem at the end of verse 30 where he chides us with the words ?O you of little faith?. Our problem is that our faith is small. How can we increase our faith? The first ingredient for faith is knowledge. We must be taught the truth. Jesus is teaching us here. We must listen to the teaching and receive it. Paul makes this point in Romans 10:14 ?How, then, can they call on one they have not believed in? And how can they believe if they have not heard.? and again in Romans 10:17 ?Consequently faith comes from hearing the message.? We must hear the truth and we must learn the truth, and this comes from hearing the truth preached. But this is not enough on its own to build faith. Knowledge must be understood. We must apply our minds and use our reason to grasp what we are being taught. If we do not do this then faith will not grow. This is what Jesus is encouraging us to do in these verses before us. He is teaching and by illustration helping us to understand the argument so that we have confidence to believe what we have been told.

But this also is not enough, there is a third ingredient in faith so that it becomes strong, and that is experience. We believe when we have been taught and understand what we have been taught, but faith increases as we prove in our experience that the truth in which we have believed is true, and that it works. From this we see that faith in its essence is an act of obedience. Jesus calls us to trust him and to trust God. It is not an obedience with no foundation for we have been told by Jesus why faith is reasonable and a blessing. However we must obey the teaching and put our trust in the Lord. Then by experience we shall find our faith growing as the truth we have been taught is proved to be true. Having said this we must emphasise that in faith at some point there is an act of obedience. We act upon the truth we have understood and rest our life on it. In this way we see that unbelief is a failure in obedience, and so is a sin we need to repent of.

The sinfulness of a lack of faith is seen when we appreciate what Jesus is telling us in his teaching here. Not to believe is to cast doubt on the faithfulness of God and on his word of promise. God will never let his beloved children go uncared for and unprovided for, and left unguided. So if we doubt and have little faith, then we are impugning the name and character of God. How awful this is, yet we do not realise it as we should.

From this we can see how worry impedes spiritual progress. Worry keeps us from knowing God and from living with God. Worry makes us like those who do not know God. Worry concentrates our mind and attention on this world so that we elbow God out of our lives, even though we do not want to do this.