Matthew 6:34-35

THE UNIVERSAL PROVIDENCE OF GOD

‘Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.’

Matthew 6:34

The message which this section brings to us seems to be just this: the life of the Christian is to be one of trustfulness, not restlessness.

I. Christ’s teaching.—Notice the way in which Christ teaches it. He asserts the universal extent of God’s providence over all His creatures, and His knowledge and control of all their actions; and He instances the least considerable of those creatures as being the constant objects of His observance and care. ‘Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow.’ Our Lord’s words are a prohibition against an increasing anxiety—not enjoining a culpable heedlessness. We do not read in these words of Jesus any condemnation of worldly activity. Energy, forethought, and activity are the source both of public and private prosperity. He only, to quote Father Didon, condemns that inordinate love of the luxuries of this life which enervates work, and the licence of selfish pleasure.

II. The universal providence of God.—This being so, we may go at once to the doctrine laid down. It is the universal providence of God. And this is not a mere speculation or fancy. It is a Divine truth, a truth of revelation; and a truth surely necessarily involved in the acknowledgment of God’s being. To those who are honouring God by seeking first His kingdom and righteousness, putting His honour and service in the right place, it is knowledge worth the having to know that nothing happens by chance.

III. Daily life and conduct.—The lesson that I want to influence your daily life and conduct is that of God’s providence. We seem to need in these days of hurry and bustle and startling events, and of endless perplexities, we seem to need more reality in our religion, more realisation of the actual presence and the overruling providence of God, more prayer for Divine teaching, more self-denial for Christ’s sake, more self-dedication to works and labour of love, more simple appreciation of the truth as it is in Jesus, more belief, shall I say—may I say—in God’s word, more conviction and practical manifestation of this principle in our lives.

Prebendary Eardley-Wilmot.