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27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. 32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. ~ Luke 12:27-32
When the Lord is ruling our lives, we will, to varying degrees, realize anxiety-free living. I say, "to varying degrees" because it is dependent upon the degree that we trust the Lord. And, may I remind you, this has nothing to do with us going to heaven. This is not justification teaching. This is sanctification teaching.
The emphasis in today's text comes in three different commands found in v.22,29,32. Stop being anxious. Stop worrying. Stop being afraid. It is possible to rise above all the troubles of this life, to have the kind of peace that surpasses all understanding. It calls for an end to anxiety, worry and fear. Talking about slaying those three and actually doing it are two separate subjects.
Worry is a failure to understand God’s goodness and sovereignty. Living in this world for as long as we have, we have been trained not to think the way God thinks. We have been trained by what the Bible calls "our flesh" which are the sinful desires that are in all of us and are in direct opposition to God's way of thinking.
God didn’t create us just to survive, He created us to thrive. And, the very thing that makes us worry, when turned around, becomes the very thing that makes us thrive. The very thing I am talking about is taking a chance on the God of the Bible. When we get to heaven, we will learn that the very ledge that we thought would have led to our demise was the ledge that led to the divine life. When we live obediently to God's Word, He creates a life full of life for us, a life full of His kind of life.
In v.27 we read, “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.” The Lord Jesus turns from the issue of food, in the previous verses, to the issue of clothing here. He says, “Consider how the wild flowers grow.” Note the “wild flowers” do not work to get their clothing. Not even the best dressed man in history, Solomon, wore things like the petal of a flower. The intricate details of the pedals of various flowers, when considered and examined, are staggering.
In v.28 we read, “If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!”
In those days, people cooked everything in clay ovens. And the way that they increased the temperature of the clay oven was to go out into the fields, collect dry grass, and throw it into the fire. That grass had a short life, yet, God clothed it. How much more will He clothe us?
In v.29, we read, “And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it.” That which we set our hearts on, defines us. The Lord Jesus is saying, "Be defined by God who loves us." The old hymn writer wrote, "Oh love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee." This is the goal the Lord Jesus is getting at, that we might truly rest in His all-sufficiency.
According to v.30-31, “For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”
The cure for worry is "seek his kingdom." That is to seek His rule in our lives. We are important to God for we were created in His image. He is our Father through the Lord Jesus' death on the cross. We had been stolen by the fallen one, Satan. But, when we believed in the Lord Jesus, we were redeemed back to the Father. For the first time in Luke's gospel, the Lord Jesus speaks of God as our Father who knows us better than we know ourselves and He knows best what we need to be fulfilled.
According to v.31, instead of worrying about our needs, our trust must be in our loving Father. The more we do this, we give the Father a chance to reveal His heart to us. It will be then that we grow in our trust of our Father. This is what pushes worry into the recesses of our lives.
When we take our focus off our kingdom, our comfort, and put it on His kingdom, this will be the moment we will see His Father heart. When we see His Father heart, His kingdom or rule we will increasingly choose the prominence of His kingdom in our lives.
In v.32 we read, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” It is the Our Father's delight is to provide for us, His children. At this point, life becomes an adventure for us. It becomes exciting, because we will be captured by the prospect of God working in and through our lives. Then we'll be amazed at how God will have used us for the advancement His kingdom in and through our yielded lives.
