Resting in Christ Jesus!

“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?” – Matthew 6:25-27 NIV

All of us know that ‘worries’ are normal thing for humans. However, in the kingdom perspective, worries are actually sin, as they lead to anxieties, then depression. This is because if we are worried, have anxieties, or depressed about something, we are not able to live kingdom life anymore, due  to the fact that our minds are so focused on the particular thing that we worry about. This is why Jesus Christ proclaims, “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:27) Living for the kingdom of God is what we are supposed to do while we are on the earth (Matthew 6:33), because we have actually been created to be the images of God in His kingdom. In fact, the Creator and our heavenly Father is desperately waiting for us to enter the kingdom of heaven from the end of the age. This is because He needs us to bring His kingdom into perfection (Genesis 1:26-31). This does not mean that God is selfish because He sent His only beloved Son, Jesus Christ as the image of God into the earth (John 1:14) to crucify Himself on the cross as an atonement of our sins (Colossians 2:13-15). Thus, we are able to become the righteousness of God through Him (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24-25).

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17)

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

Furthermore, God send worries into our lives because He wants us to depend on Him about everything like little children (Matthew 19:14) This is the reason why Jesus states, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3) Thus, instead of having worries upon us, we should give them up to our heavenly Father by prayers (Philippians 4:6-7) and rest in Him (Matthew 11:28-30) In addition to this, we should just seek the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously (Matthew 6:33-34) until the end of the age by following the Spirit of God (Matthew 7:21). This is also because worries are able to weaken our spiritual lives, for Jesus declares, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:22-23)

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. (Psalm 46:10)

If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.

… Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

… the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:15-21,23-24,26-27)