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Gary G. Hoag
““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? "So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 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 6:25-34
“If any of the children of God should think that such a mode of living leads away from the Lord, and from caring about spiritual things, and has the effect of causing the mind to be taken up with the question, What shall I eat? — What shall I drink? - and Wherewithal shall I be clothed? I would request him prayerfully to consider the following remarks:
1. I have had experience of both ways, and know that my present mode of living, as to temporal things, is connected with less care.
2. Confidence in the Lord, to whom alone I look for the supply of my temporal wants, kęeps me, when a case of distress comes before me, or when the Lord’s work calls for my pecuniary aid, from conscious reckoning like this: Will my salary last out? Shall I have enough myself the next month? etc.
In this my freedom, I am, by the grace of God, generally, at least, able to say to myself something like this: My Lord is not limited; He can again supply; He knows that this present case has been sent to me: and thus, this way of living, so far from leading to anxiety, is rather the means of keeping from it. And truly it was once said to me by an individual, — You can do such and such things and need not to lay by, for the church in the whole of Devonshire cares about your wants My reply was: The Lord can use not merely any of the saints throughout Devonshire, but those throughout the world, as instruments to supply my temporal wants.
3. This way of living has often been the means of reviving the work of grace in my heart, when I have been getting cold: and it also has been the means of bringing me back again to the Lord, after I have been backsliding. For it will not do — it is not possible to live in sin, and at the same time, by communion with God, to draw down from heaven everything one needs for the life that now is.
4. Frequently, too, a fresh answer to prayer, obtained in this way, has been the means of quickening my soul, and filling me with much joy.
George Mueller (1805-1898) in The Life of Trust (New York: Sheldon and Company, 1878) 87-88.
Click here to download this classic work.
In today’s post, Mueller outlines four benefits of the life of trust. It’s a life of less care, freedom from anxiety, revived faith, and joy.
Interestingly, from the world’s perspective, the life of trust offers the opposite.
From the world's perspective, the life of trust appears as a path of more care, anxiety, fear, and difficulty.
This explains why so few people choose this life. Have you chosen it? How do you know? Do you depend on God for your daily needs or have them sorted?
When I hold on to God’s provision, it leads my heart away from Him. I trust in myself and the resources in my possession. This gives me all the bad side benefits mentioned above.
Alternatively, when I choose the paradoxical path of dependence, everything changes.
I can’t make you choose it. But I can encourage you to try. Your experience of this life and rewards in the next will depend on the decision you make.
Jesus, George, and I are not trying rob you. We are trying to help you.
We want you to grasp abundant life right now! Imagine less care, freedom from anxiety, revived faith, and joy.
These things are only part of the life of trust. What are you waiting for?
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