From the ‘Will of God as a Way of Life,’ Jerry Sittser wrote:
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus exhorts us not to be anxious about tomorrow but to concentrate on what we must do today. We ought to trust that God who clothes the lilies of the field and cares for the birds of the air will also meet our needs. This God will take care of tomorrow; thus; we must concentrate our energies on today. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”3
Jesus’ teaching on God’s will is deceptively simple here. He instructs not to worry, as unbelievers do, about present circumstances or future problems. Instead, he commands, “Strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”4 The verse says nothing about how to discern God’s will for our lives. . . . Jesus demands instead that we establish righteous priorities and put first things first.
We might have ten important decisions to make and a hundred possible pathways to follow. We might wish that God would tell us exactly what to do, where to go, and how to choose. Yet Jesus only requires that we make sure our heart is good, our motives are pure, and our basic direction in life is right, pointing toward the “true north” of the kingdom of God. We can, in good conscience, choose from any number of reasonable alternatives and continue to do the will of God. In the end what matters most is that we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Jesus wants us to devote our time and energy to all the little tasks we must do every day, not just to the big decisions we have to make every so often. The little responsibilities we do to prepare us for big responsibilities later on, good decisions in little things set the stage for big opportunities yet to come, and faithfulness in things that appear to have only modest importance enables us to respond wisely to duties that seem—and perhaps are—very important. Jesus reminds us:
“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have been faithful with dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches: And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? (Luke 16:10-12)
The Apostle Paul argues in a similar vein.
~Jerry Sittser, The Will of God as a Way of Life, (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI 49506) p.30-31
