Honouring by continuing their work

https://odb.org/2025/04/11/good-grief

2 Kings 2:8–14 (NIV): 8 Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up, and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. 9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.
10 “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.” 11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. 12 Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two. 13 Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14 He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.

The story of Hachiko waiting for his owner to return despite the latter having passed on is legendary as Hachiko did the same thing, day in day out, for 10 years, whether is summer, spring or winter! Most of us would have watched the movie starring Richard Gere, and I’m sure we would have been touched by Hachiko’s faithfulness.

In life, we also want to be faithful like Hachiko, to the people we love or respect. Like being faithful to our beloved wife. Or being faithful to the cause of our leaders based on their example when they were leading us. When they retire or pass on, we should honour them by being faithful to their cause by continuing their work. Often, when leaders die, their cause die with them. One great example in the bible is that of Elisha with Elijah. Elisha shadowed Elijah for some time as the latter’s disciple, and when Elijah was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind by heavenly beings, Elisha saw it and was blessed with a double portion of Elijah’s anointing. In other words, Elisha could do what Elijah did before but better and more powerful. In 2 Kings 2, we see that Elisha parted the Jordan like Elijah did before using Elijah’s cloak. 

If there’s someone we love and respect a lot, and they have departed, the best way to honour him or her is to carry on their work in Christ. If they had been a good and faithful servant of God during their lifetime, we should likewise be a good and faithful servant of God. We honour them by carrying on their legacy, their work like how Elisha did in respect of Elijah. If it’s mission work, we continue that mission. Let the nations be blessed and the name of our LORD be glorified by the work of our hands! Amen!

Helpful brethren

https://odb.org/2025/04/10/the-wright-sister

Romans 16:1-4: I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. 2 I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me. 3 Greet Priscillac and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. 4 They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.

The magnificent cathedral at Cologne, Germany
Standing tall despite the massive WW2 bombings

We returned last week from our multi-city tour of Europe, with a stopover-stay in the UK to spend time with our elder son. But I couldn’t get back to writing these devotional pages expediently as I have been struggling with jet lag for the past week. My apologies for my tardiness. I only managed to fall asleep in the wee hours of the morning. Thus, it was impossible to wake up at 5.30 a.m. to seek God and write.

The Central European tour was whirlwind quick but tiring yet absolutely enjoyable. The cold was a refreshing change from the hot and humid weather we are accustomed to over here. One of the highlights, there were actually quite a few, was seeing the magnificent cathedral in Cologne, which miraculously survived the bombings in WW2 by the grace of God.

Coming to the topic of today, as Paul commended in Romans 16 the brethren who helped the church and his ministry by name, we know for sure that ministry is a team effort. Everyone needs to play their part. I see that even in my life group, where there are those who are taking the initiative to organise a retreat when the leaders are busy with work and other ministry duties.

In the case of the famous Wright brothers, there was Katherine Wright, who helped them in the background running their bicycle shop that was the brothers’ source of income and also nursing Orville back to health after he suffered a plane crash in their quest to invent the aeroplane. Paul remembered those who were helpful and who contributed to the cause of ministry. Jesus will, of course, remember and will reward and honour them accordingly in their time in eternal life. But will we remember and honour those around us for all that they have done in our midst even as we ourselves serve God faithfully in accordance with the talents and giftings He has bestowed upon us? We must encourage and honour all our fellow soldiers in Christ, all who have worked and toiled tirelessly for Christ all these years. As the Chinese say, from dark hair to grey hair, we have all served God in the church all these years, one way or another.

The LORD God our Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ like to commend each and every one of us today for our faithfulness in serving in the church, for our generosity in time and finance and for our kind and encouraging words of exaltation. Despite our challenges in life and at our workplace, in particular, the expected turmoil the world will face with an unpredictable and manipulative president in the US, we will stand the course to complete God’s plans and purposes for our lives!

Have a good weekend ahead, everyone! Be a good and helpful brethren and at the same time appreciate and honour our fellow helpful brethren, in our quest to fulfil the will of the Father here on earth as it is in heaven!

The Son is not a created being

https://odb.org/2025/03/17/making-peace

Colossians 1:15–20 (NIV): 15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him, all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

In Colossae, there were false teachers who were advocating that Jesus as the Son of God was a created being in the sense that He was created by Father God like all other things. But Paul sharply rebutted this by declaring that Christ was the firstborn over all creation. He asserted that in Christ, all things were created. All things were created through Him anf for Him. He is before all things, and in Him, all things hold together.

John also similarly asserted as follows in John 1: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. The Word was Logos meaning the life force who existed at the very beginning in Greek thought. Through Him, all things were made. Without Him, nothing was made that had been made.

The Jews however could not accept that their Yahweh, the God who led them throughout generations since ancient times, since the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is also Jesus Christ of Nazareth. They could not accept the Immanuel of God having become flesh to dwell amongst His people.

Although rejected by the Jews, Jesus reconciled men to God and extended Yahweh’s Lordship and rulership beyond Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria to the rest of the world. Indeed, through Abraham and his seed, nations shall be blessed. As God of a small band of people numbering 70 when Jacob settled in Egypt after the LORD sent Joseph ahead to prepare the way, that band had blossomed into a nation of more than 2 million when they left Egypt for Canaan 430 years later with Moses. Still, the Israelites were a small nation compared to the nations around them and the dominant deity then and there was Baal. But through Jesus mankind was reconciled to God, and now Yahweh is the God of millions all around the world, that we as Gentiles are now grafted into the family as adopted sons and daughters through Christ.

Be thankful for this privilege and honour to know Yahweh personally in Christ as much as Christ is Yahweh as He existed at the beginning and created all things. Know that even God’s plans for us as born-again human beings with body and spirit were conceived and prepared even before the foundations of the world. God knows us personally and loves each and every one of us. Give our lives to Him and go for His narrow path. He will lead us to be the best that we will ever be!

Have a good week ahead, everyone! We will be travelling to Europe for a vacation and then meeting up with our elder son in the UK. My postings will be sporadic due to the time difference, and I may be offline until we return to Malaysia in early April. Take care, everyone! God bless and keep on walking the narrow path of righteousness that leads to eternal life!

Created for good works

https://odb.org/2025/03/14/were-made-to-do-good

Ephesians 2:6–10 (NIV): 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The natural tendency of people is usually to mind your own business. Perhaps it’s a city or urban thing. In the natural, we are not inclined to do evil or to hurt, but we are not obliged to help either. You live your life, and I live mine. I said earlier it may be a city or urban thing as people in the countryside and smaller towns are usually more helpful. Or if you see an accident on the roadside, people stopping to help are usually motorcyclists, ordinary people rather than the elite. In terms of races in Malaysia, the Malays are often more helpful compared to the Chinese, and this could be because of their rural based DNA and upbringing. People in the city are often chasing time, rushing from one destination to another, and are thus less inclined to make pit stops.

Actually, deep inside us, we are created to do good. As human beings, our bodies will naturally release dopamine, a reward hormone that gives us pleasure when we achieve something or do good. Like endorphin that releases feelings of euphoria when we exercise or oxytocin (the love hormone) during feelings of connection, bonding, or intimacy, we are made to do good. But sometimes, when left to our own devices, our fleshy desires take control, and we may want to do harm rather than do good.

However, as born-again Christians and believers redeemed by the blood of Christ and who, by God’s grace, found and accepted salvation from God, we must always remember to do good. In fact, Paul says that we are created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Therefore, in the natural as humans, we have been created to do good. In Christ, we are now commissioned to do good works as God has prepared in advance for us. It speaks of a list of good works that we are tasked to do and complete in Christ. That is why James emphasised that salvation without works is dead. We may be saved by grace, but as the redeemed, we are to do good works. Jesus reminds us of this in the parable of the ungrateful or unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:21-35.

I think it is a timely reminder that we are created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Our bodies will help us achieve this by releasing dopamine, which will make us feel good when we have done a good deed. In the process, our Lord, who is seated at the right hand of the Father, will also be happy with us. It is a “win-win-win” situation! Hallelujah! Amen!

Heart of stone vs heart of flesh

https://odb.org/2025/03/13/a-new-heart-in-christ

Ezekiel 11:16–20 (NIV): 16 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.’ 17 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’ 18 “They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. 19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

When I read Ezekial 11 above, the first thing that struck me was that although the LORD scattered His people into exile due to their obstinance, He did not forsake them. In verse 16, He said for a little while, He was a sanctuary to them in the countries they had gone to. It is for a little while because He wants to bring them back to Israel at a later stage. But for them to come back, He needs to give them an undivided heart and a new spirit. He needs to give them a heart of flesh and remove their heart of stone. So that they no longer worship the detestable idols. Presumably, idolatry results in them having a heart of stone.

In spiritual terms, a heart of stone speaks of a cold, hardened, unfeeling, and rebellious heart, resistant to God’s grace and incapable of repentance. It is a heart that fights God’s grace instead of receiving it. It is a heart that resists the work of the Holy Spirit. A heart that refuses to see the goodness of God, in fact even denies His very existence. A heart that only sees the natural and relies on the 5 senses and seems to presume that life starts and ends here on earth. One does what one pleases within the norms and laws of society with no regard to the eternal. It is a heart dead to the spiritual.

But a heart of flesh is alive! It is filled with blood from the body, signifying the work of the Holy Spirit that gives us life beyond what’s natural. In Christian speak, it is a born-again heart, revived to sense the spiritual and the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. It is not restricted to the five senses. We trust and place our hope in the unseen. It is a heart that embraces and operates by faith. It is a heart that is appreciative and thankful for the grace of God, for His goodness. It is a heart that believes in life after death, beyond this earth, a life eternal where we will be judged and will need to account for how we had lived our lives here on earth. A heart of flesh beats to rhythm of the Spirit of God! A heart of flesh seeks and longs for our names to be written in the Book of Life, of having a place in the mansion with many rooms and an inheritance in the new heaven and new earth. A heart that seeks to qualify to be rightful citizens in the new Jerusalem, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb!

Thank you, Lord, for giving us a heart of flesh! May our hearts always remain a heart of flesh! Amen!

Unity in diversity

https://odb.org/2025/03/12/elephant-helpers

1 Corinthians 12:21–26 (NIV): 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

The amazing thing about the baby elephant in Kenya, who was attacked by hyenas and lost two-thirds of its trunk, was his acceptance by the elephants in the sanctuary. After his rescue, Long’uro fitted well into the community at the sanctuary because elephants innately know they need each other to survive. In the wild, predators like lions or hyenas will prey on the babies because they are the weakest, but the adults in the herd will go all out to protect them, and logically so as the infants are the future of the herd. This is especially so when the gestation period for an elephant foetus is 22 months. Every baby that is delivered is precious.

It was very clever of Paul to use the human body to illustrate the need for unity in the body of Christ in spite of its diversity. There were then Jews and Gentiles, free and slaves, Greek and Israelites, poor and rich, ordinary folks like Peter and John and religious scholars like Paul. Anyone who has lost a little part of his body will know that we are never the same after the loss. Even a small toe will affect our balance in walking. It will be tough to play the guitar if we have lost one finger at either hand. A person who lost his vision in one eye can’t drive anymore as the human body needs both eyes to judge distance. We may survive with one kidney, but our lives will be severely impaired. There is a specific function for every part of our human body, whether seen or unseen. If we go for orthodontic treatment when young, the orthodontist will usually extract 4 of our teeth. But as we grow older, losing teeth will drastically lessen our ability to chew, and as much as advancements in dentistry allow tooth implants, it is still dependent on our jawbone density, which reduces as we age.

In any church, even in racially homogeneous ones, there are bound to be different types of worshippers. There will be the older ones and the very old as well as little ones. In the middle, there will be school going youths, followed by college going ones and young working adults. Then there will be young couples, some who may be having children already, and so on. Some couples like my wife and I, our children, have already grown up and graduated from university and are either looking to enter the workforce or are already working. There are worshippers from various economic backgrounds and sectors. There are doctors, engineers, teachers, and those doing business. The challenge is to be united in our pursuit of spirituality and knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ despite our differences. We all want to fulfil God’s plans and purposes for our lives. We want to live out His calling for our lives at the opportune season. We want to be in the centre of His will and be a part of what He is doing in our midst.

It is my prayer for us today that we will be like elephants who innately know that we need one another to survive and succeed in our spiritual walk. That we will help and encourage each other to remain in our lane in the narrow path of righteousness that leads to eternal life despite our differences in background, social status, and financial capabilities. We are a diverse bunch and yet united in spirit and purpose because the Holy Spirit dwelling in each and every one of us. All praise, glory, and honour be unto our Lord Jesus Christ!

Heirs in Christ

https://odb.org/2025/03/11/heirs-of-gods-salvation

Galatians 4:1–7 (NIV): What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

It is interesting that Paul writes in Galatians 4 that as long as an heir is under age, he is no different from a slave in the sense that although he owns the whole estate, he is still subject to guardians and trustees until he reaches the time set by his father. Under Malaysian law, the Age of Majority Act sets 18 as the age of majority. Thus, at 18, a minor becomes a major, or in the English language, the master of a family becomes a mister. However, under the Guardianship of Infants Act, an infant is only considered an adult at 21. While a major can enter into legally binding contracts at 18 and be subject to full criminal sanctions, the guardianship over a minor only ceases at 21. The latter is usually relevant in custody cases, and once a child reaches 21, the child decides on his or her own whether to stay with the father or the mother.

But Paul is ahead of his time when he wrote that the heir is subject to guardians and trustees until he reaches the time set by his father. In a will, the distribution of the estate is determined by the owner, who has passed. It is not uncommon in the last testaments for a testator to specify the age when an estate is to be bequeathed to an heir. Thus, although the law will apply 18 as the age if the will is silent, the testator may specify 30. Or if the estate is to be sold and proceeds held on trust in a foundation, the foundation could pay a lifetime stipend to the heir.

But for adoption in verse 5, Paul uses the Greek word, Huiothesia, a word used to describe the practice of placing a male from outside of the family to become a son to inherit the estate during ancient times. That is how Paul likens our adoption into the family of God through Christ Jesus, and it is very apt as the Jews, the ones first chosen by God, rejected Christ. It is very apt too as we were slaves to the ruler of the world before we knew Christ, like a minor, but the time specified by the Father has now come through the redemptive work of Christ. We are now sons and daughters of God, with Christ crucified and resurrected!

Christ has provided for us as sons and daughters of God an inheritance in heaven, a place in the Kingdom of God, and most crucially, He has written our names in the Book of Life. Every time we are tempted to sin or drift away from God, remember that Christ has redeemed us with His blood. Remember that we are heirs who have reached the age of majority and may no longer be liken to slaves. The time appointed by the Father has come, and we now rightfully own the estate, no longer subject to guardians and trustees. Act and behave like one in all that we do! Amen!

Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem

https://odb.org/2025/03/10/resting-in-christ

Nehemiah 4:1–9 (NIV): 6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.
7 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. 8 They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. 9 But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.

If Moses is known for bringing the Israelites out of Egypt and the introduction of the Mosaic law and Joshua is known for his conquest of Canaan (especially the fall of walls of Jericho), then Nehemiah is known for rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem after the return of the Jews from Babylon during the period of the Second Temple. Nehemiah, a high official in the Persian court, sought and was granted permission by King Artaxerxes I to return to Jerusalem as the governor to rebuild not only the walls of Jerusalem but also the Temple. He faced opposition and ridicule from the surrounding enemies of Israel but persevered through. With the people united in strength and vision, they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in fifty-two days, doing masonry work as well as posting armed men to keep guard. They displayed both diligence and bravery, working tirelessly to lay the bricks and stones and yet willing to take up arms to fight if they were attacked by their enemies. They prayed to God at the same time, and perhaps because they stood guard and the LORD protected them, none of their enemies attacked them. Although their resources were divided (stonework and brickwork/armed guards), they finished their work in record time!

Nehemiah teaches us an important lesson in rebuilding our spiritual lives. When we are rebuilding, we need to be vigilant at the same time. With prayer and by committing our spiritual lives to God, we have Him on our side to help us rebuild our spiritual lives. Yet, we must remain vigilant to protect ourselves from the evil one. Practically even as we devote time to pray and dwell in His Word, we mustn’t do anything that may allow room for the enemy to attack or distract us. We must stand strong in the midst of the devil’s vile schemes and temptations.

Nehemiah also speaks of rebuilding our natural lives in the sense that God is able to restore what the locusts have devoured. The Lord will rebuild our lives if we have been devastated by events or circumstances, the same way He sent Nehemiah to do so for Jerusalem. As He did not allow Jerusalem to lay in ruins, He will not allow our ruins to overcome our resolve to rise again both, spiritually and naturally. Our Lord will pick us up and carry us through the storm, and then we will walk again, in the splendour of His love and grace. The LORD our God is the rebuilder of Jerusalem and is the rebuilder of lives! Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life! Amen!

Name lists and the Book of Life

https://odb.org/2025/03/08/the-list-is-life

Numbers 26:4 (NIV): 4 “Take a census of the men twenty years old or more, as the LORD commanded Moses.” These were the Israelites who came out of Egypt:

We needed to wake up at 5.30 a.m. and travel out of the city early yesterday morning to come back to Seremban for the weekend and thus didn’t have time to write and send out yesterday’s morning devotion. But the topic was intriguing, and thus, I am writing about it today.

The bible has places where a list of names appears, like in Numbers 26. In the latter, a census was taken, and those who were delivered by Moses out of Egypt en route to the Promised Land were accounted for one by one. Other lists are found like in Genesis 5, tracing the descendants of Adam or the famous geneology of Jesus in Matthew 1. It is interesting to read name lists if we are history buffs looking for “who is who” in a lineage of kings and emperors or even ordinary people but if we need to memorise the names for exams, then it becomes a nightmare indeed! But usually name lists in the bible are boring to read. They have little meaning to us unless we are in them somehow like a great descendant is amongst the many names, like the memoriam set up for those who fought and died in wars.

Even though name lists may be boring to read, it does reflect one thing – that our God the LORD made the effort throughout generations to remember people who had come and gone. They may be mere human beings, but the LORD remembers each and every single one of them. It goes to show that though we have limited lifespans and life stretches thousands of years, we were never a mere statistic. Each and every one of us has a name and a lifetime of history and memories. We all have millions of moments lived out in life.

This brings us to the ultimate name list that we all seek out for, and that is the names of those written in the Book of Life. Through the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross of Calvary, and our faith in Jesus, we have our names written in the Book of Life, and as much as the Devil tries to distract, deceive and draw us away from the narrow path of righteousness that leads to eternal life, we will stand firm to ensure that our names remain written in the Book of Life!

This morning, as we set out to our respective churches to worship God, be thankful that our Lord Jesus Christ has done the work for our names to be written in the Book of Life and that we are now co-heirs with Christ to share in the inheritance of the saints! Amen! Hallelujah! All praises be unto God!

Worry adds nothing

https://odb.org/2025/03/07/life-without-worry

Matthew 6:25-34 NIV – 25 “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? 26 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? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. 30 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? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

If we have been in the faith for a while, we would know that worry adds nothing to our lives. It is a direct teaching of Jesus as set out in Matthew 6:25-34, and since Jesus is the Son of God and He is God in the flesh, His words are wiser than even the words of Solomon. In fact, worry can sometimes be detrimental to our health, especially our mental health. Experience will show that nothing changes with worry. Will we add an hour to our life by worrying? No. Look at the birds of the air or the flowers that bloom. God takes care of them. In the same way, God will take care of us.

Having said that, we know that we will still worry. We will still worry about the future. What tomorrow will bring? Will our children and their children have a good future? Will they carve a place for themselves in this big wide world? Will they find peace and joy in God? Or will they stray away, distracted by the challenges of life and the bright lights of the world? Will we have enough to retire when we are no longer earning? Will we be doing anything useful for society and God after we retire? In what tangible way can we really serve Him? Missions? Ministry?

The teaching of Jesus in Matthew 6:25-34 is simple – worry adds nothing, God will take care, so seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these shall be added unto us. Instead of worrying about things and the future, just put God first in all that we do. Pursue the things of God and His righteousness. Dwell deeper into His Word. Serve God more meaningfully. Focus on what really matters in eternity, not just what we can see in the natural. As faith is believing in things unseen. Have a kingdom mindset. Make sure we are always on the narrow path. We can not escape the challenges of this world, but as we give our lives to God, we can be rest assured that He will bring us safely through this world.

Remember Psalm 23? Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. Don’t forget and be reminded that the LORD always wants the best for us. Put our trust fully in Him instead of worrying. That will serve us better in the long run, in our run up to eternity.