text:_ Matthew 6:1-34 Reflections

MATTHEW 6:1-34
SEPTEMBER 18, 2008

One of the things I love about St. Paul's is that I feel like I'm surrounded by people who are blessed with the gift of prayer. And when I listen to them, I can just feel God drawing nearer and my heart opening. And I see the prayer teams on Sunday doing wonderful things. But I worry sometime that I don't have that gift and need to "do something" to become better at praying.

That is the reason I just love this chapter (along with Romans 3 and 1 Corinthians 13). Jesus tells me that when I pray in quietly alone, those prayers are important to God. He already knows about my needs before I ask him. And he even helps with a good prayer for when I get stuck: You are God and everything is yours. Help me to do what you need done. I trust that you will give me what I need and I will try to love others as myself. Protect me from the brokenness of this world.

So I don't have to worry. I just need to keep talking to Him, and He will take care of the rest. In all the things in my life, not just prayers. All I have to do is look around and see the evidence that God is big enough to take care of the birds and the flowers and the rest of creation, so watching out for me is not a burden for Him.

The problems start when I forget this, when I think I can make enough money to do things on my own. When I start to think that the things of this world are the important things. When I start asking 'how am I going to be able to do this?' I am always surprised that when I give things over to God, He seems to provide a way (not always the way I would choose, though).

And finally, God provided today for me to experience with Him, and why mess that up by trying to get a head start on tomorrow. Tomorrow will be here soon enough. I finish reading this chapter and can take a deep breath and smile. We have such an awesome God.