"“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
Perhaps, the hardest lessons for us to learn are the heart lessons. A Christian who has attended church from young may 'know' many things about who God is, what God has done, and what He desires of us. A christian may 'know' that God is a God of love. He/she may 'know' that God is reliable and one in whom we can trust. He/she may 'know' that God provides.
Yet, we may not believe in our hearts that God truly loves us. We may not believe that God is really dependable. We may say with our mouth that we believe in these things, but our actions give us away. We may know these things in our head, we may not know these things in our hearts.
And so Jesus was speaking in Matthew 6. He says that He cares even for the birds of the air, and the flowers of the field. Surely then, our worries and troubles do not escape Him. We are the foremost of His creation, and much more valuable in His eyes than the birds or the flowers. How do I know this? Well, perhaps many reasons may be given. Let me just say two of them. For one, we were made in God's image. (Gen 1:27) We resemble God in different ways, from humans' rationality, to creativity, and to moral capability. Secondly, we are valuable enough for God Himself to humble Himself unto to cross and to die for us.
Personally, last semester was pretty intense. I was taking 4 philosophy modules. As of the start of the second last week of school, I had 5 things that were due by the last day of school. Thankfully, I submitted everything on time (1 of the 5 assignments' deadline was extended). And amazingly, I (mostly) had a sense of peace through the process and that was really precious to me. From my past experiences, I think I am someone who gets stressed pretty easily. But I am learning to trust in God and to depend on Him. I am learning that God provides for my needs.
I was not always as trustful towards God as I was last semester. Previously, there was once when I was in charged of planning for my CCA's booth during NUS's Student Life Fair. I got so stressed up that I couldn't function well, and my heart was beating faster than normal. I was definitely in a state of anxiousness. It was not a nice feeling. Then I told God, acknowledging that the booth was His work, and I wanted to commit myself and the event fully into His hands. Peace came, God brought my team through the Student Life Fair, and I saw how He provided. I was able to learn to trust God through the hard times.
The hardest lessons for us to learn may be the heart lessons. Perhaps this is because they cannot really be taught through reading or hearing. They have to be experienced. God can use the difficult times to teach us what it means to trust Him, to know that He is our provider. I know that God provides, when I saw how He provided for my physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.
