By Lucas Pruett

A few minutes ago, I sat down to brainstorm on what to write this week. First off, it’s hard to believe that this is my fifth article. It’s amazing how quick the months fly. I thought about the great truth and application that has come from the old testament. I think of how the second article we settled into the question of “Do we really know how much God loves us?”. God has taken us through some big things. I must admit that as I pondered on these past articles I began to feel a bit guilty. I have not wrote any articles directly from a teaching of our amazing savior. Brother and sister, there is nothing more important in our faith walk than the words of Jesus. His words are those of the living God. Our creator put on human flesh and has given us wisdom, encouragement, and instruction to live by. These life creating words are found throughout the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Our foundation as a follower of Jesus and a child of God has to be built on his words. In Matthew 7, Jesus says,”Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Verse 24). His words are essential to our lives. Building on them, as oppossed to the words of the enemy, is essentially the difference between a house that stays standing and one that falls when the storms come. Child of God, How is your foundation? What words of Christ are you building on this week? Let’s look at a few you can start with.

In Chapter 7, Jesus gives us big advice on one of our biggest struggles to date as humans. I’m talking about that constant thorn in our side, worry. We have a way of going crazy with worry. Whether we show it externally or internally, worry eats at all of us. It’s an amazing dynamic. Jesus, practical as always, spoke right into this. Jesus states, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Mt. 7:24). First off, if we are building our foundation on Jesus’s exact words, then we need to write verses like these down and study them constantly and write them on our hearts through memorazation. Try that today. You won’t regret it. Back to this power packed verse. Jesus knew about worry. He knew about every emotion we could ever experience. He was 100% human. Day in and day out, he felt stress and worry just like us. Luckily for us, Jesus deals with it ALOT differently than us. In this verse, He gives us the God way to deal with worry and to eliminate the slavery it brings upon us. His message is simple. Worry about tomorrow, when it is tomorrow. I can see your face now. You are probably giving me the “Duh” look. However, think of the last time a big event was on the horizon for you. Think of how you spent days on days worrying about that or thinking about that. That is something we all do. Jesus is asking us to stop doing that because when we worry about the events of tomorrow then they steal the joy of today. Each day has plenty trouble of it’s own, we have no room to allow the days ahead to steal the joy of the current days journey. Christ wants us to bring to him our worries of the day and He will provide for us. He will always give us our daily bread. He never says that he will provide our future daily bread today. There is something so powerful about living in the moment with Jesus. That is what Jesus is inviting us to do here. He wants us to stop stressing over tomorrow and just enjoy today. The enemy is going to ask differently, but I plea that you follow the Shepards voice only this week! Don’t worry about tomorrow, choose Jesus today! If you have any thoughts or questions then please feel free to reach out to me at writingonpurpose@gmail.com.