Guest Post by: Mark C Ryan

You are more valuable

In Matthew 6:26, Jesus asks a poignant question of us

“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?”

However, within the context of Matthew 6:25-34 it holds a much broader meaning. When we pray and beg and plead and work through our own strength to ensure the necessities of life are provided for us and our families, we have given up on God. The question, “are you not much more valuable than they?” may be thought provoking and poignant, but it is also completely redundant. This isn’t the first time this question was asked. In Job 38:41, God asks Job, “Who prepares for the raven its nourishment when its young cry to God And wander about without food?”

God assures us over and over that He cares for us more than He cares for the birds.

* Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13

* This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 1 John 3:16

* Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Romans 8:17

* So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. Galatians 4:7

* But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY. 1 Peter 2:9-10

When we forget these truths we become self-absorbed and begin to trust in our strength and forget about the fact that the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is also in us. (Romans 8:11)

As both a father and a child of God I am reminded daily of how much I should trust God and how much God loves me. I look at my three daughters and see that they worry for nothing, they don’t worry about clothes, they don’t worry about housing, and they don’t worry about food. Much like what Matthew 6:26 says in the Message translation, my daughters are careless in the care of their father.

As I watched my youngest daughter the other day, and saw how much she trusted me, I was put in my place of how much I need to trust God. When my children want something, they ask me. They look to me to provide for them. This opened my eyes to the truth of Matthew 7:11 – “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

You are extremely valuable to God, He cares deeply for you. Proverbs 19:21 reminds us, “many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s will that prevails” and Jeremiah 29:11 tells us, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” With these promises, and so many more, we can truly trust and depend on our heavenly father and we too can be “careless in the care of God.”