CARRY—Just the Exact Amount
See in our mind this image.
Pause in the hallway beside the closet, take out two cloth-shoulder bags, grab our house keys and dog leash.
“Come on, Maple. Let’s go get something for dinner,” she exclaims, noticing how her faithful Golden Retriever is already standing near the door, ready for the 4-letter word that when spoken evokes a sense of excitement—WALK.
Now two things should be noted in the above scenario.
1. The purchase of enough food for a single meal, maybe two (dinner & breakfast) is sought, as two cloth bags are retrieved (one for each shoulder and not an excess purchased for what we do not have—six shoulders).
2. The purchase of food for the day’s meals requires movement (a walk to the downtown market). Now, true, the food could be ordered and delivered—for an additional cost, but a walk brings a two-fold benefit—less money leaving one’s wallet & exercise for one’s body.
Jesus spoke to the crowds (and His disciples) gathered on the mountain, teaching them foundational truths—-
- To help them with their personal relationships,
- To help them with their offerings to others,
- To help them with their witness within the world,
- To help them with their understanding of their struggles and dealings with others, showing them how these actions lead to eternal blessings,
- To help them with learning how to pray, how to seek God,
- To help them with the sacrificial fasting they are led to do as they serve God,
- To help them with their trust, to look toward God and to not be filled with inner anxiety,
- To help them with their judgment of others,
- To help them live-out the Golden Rule,
- To help them as they walk the narrow path the followers of God are led to take,
- To help them be aware of false teachers, to see if their fruit shows evidence of a true devotion to God, &
- To help them learn that God is the ONLY TRUE Foundation upon which they are to place their trust.
What an amazing—Sermon on the Mount!!!
From Jesus—
From His Sermon on the Mountainside—
We see the guidance for our entire lives, &
Today, one particular verse stands out for this—our gift of a day.
Jesus said (JESUS!)—“Give us this day our daily bread.”
(Matthew 6: 11)
Sydney and Hunter walk to the market with two shoulder bags, with just enough baggage to comfortably carry (even as one of them securely holds onto Maple’s leash).
Enough food for tonight’s dinner.
Enough food for tomorrow’s breakfast.
Another walk downtown tomorrow afternoon for more food for tomorrow night’s dinner.
Just enough for one day—one single day.
Pause and consider our phone calendar, wall calendar, agenda book, or list of tasks that fills our minds.
What must we accomplish tomorrow?
What’s on our agenda for this day?
What about this coming Friday OR for Friday, November 12?
Looking down the road can be overwhelming.
Looking into tomorrow can be overwhelming.
Looking into this one single breath of a day can also (sometimes) be overwhelming.
Oftentimes, life can just feel as if we are walking to the downtown market with sixteen cloth bags, knowing in our mind how there is NO WAY we can EVER carry all that we need to carry, even if we could carry eight bags each upon our two shoulders!
So let us NOT.
So let us only carry just enough for this one day and night.
So let us ask God (even before we grab our house keys and cloth bags to leave the house),
“God, help me know what I must carry today.” &
“God help me leave the other baggage sitting, maybe prioritized by importance, but sitting and not carried around as I walk through this single gift of a day You have provided.”
There is so much we can receive from God’s Word, so much to help us walk through our lives—walking as we rely upon our Savior, Sustainer, Redeemer, Friend, and Lord.
Do not believe me, but only believe God’s Word.
“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.
(2 Corinthians 2: 14-17 & 3: 4-6)
For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
To the one an aroma from death to death,
To the other an aroma from life to life,
And who is adequate for these things?
For we are not like many, peddling the Word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. . . .
Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.
Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter [of the Law], but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
Thank You God for sitting down upon the mountainside to teach us.
Thank You God for those who You bring to our lives who remind us there is play (daily), even as we walk to the market.
Thank You God for life-companions who walk beside us as we go through life.
Thank YOU—GOD—for EVERYTHING! For reminding us that we only have two shoulders—just enough to “shoulder” our necessary burdens for today as we leave tomorrow—for tomorrow’s burdens.
Help us learn to rely on You.
Help us learn to walk in Your will.
Help us today to be silent, listening for Your leading.
“My soul, wait in silence for God only,
(Psalm 62: 5-7)
For my hope is from Him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
My stronghold; I shall not be shaken.
On God my salvation and my glory rest;
The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.