Look at the Birds

Today’s Passage: Matthew 6:25-34

Jesus has just said no one can serve both God and money. Now He turns to the fear that keeps us gripping money so tightly. He points at the birds in the sky and the flowers in the grass. He wants the worried heart to look up and remember whose it is.

As you read, hold this: Do not worry; seek first the kingdom, and your Father who feeds the birds will care for you.

Matthew 6:25 (BSB)

²⁵ Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?

Jesus names the very things we lie awake over. Food. Drink. Clothes. Then He asks a bigger question. Your life is worth more than the things that keep it going. The One who gave you the life will not forget the smaller needs.

Matthew 6:26-27 (BSB)

²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

He tells us to watch the birds. They plant nothing and store nothing, yet the Father feeds them every day. If He cares for a sparrow, He surely cares for you. And notice what worry (μεριμνάω) merimnaō, pronounced meh-rim-NAH-oh. Strong's G3309, to worry, be anxious, be pulled apart by care. This word means to be pulled apart by care, like a mind dragged in many directions at once. Jesus is not scolding you for feeling this. He is calling your divided heart back to one place: a Father you can trust. cannot do. It cannot add one hour to your life. It only steals the hours you have.

Matthew 6:28-30 (BSB)

²⁸ And why do you worry about clothes? Consider how the lilies of the field grow: They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Now He points to the wildflowers. They do no work, yet they are dressed more beautifully than the richest king who ever lived. And these flowers do not even last. Tomorrow they are cut and burned. If God dresses the grass so well, He will surely take care of you. Your faith is small only because your view of the Father is small.

Matthew 6:31-32 (BSB)

³¹ Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the Gentiles strive after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

Chasing these things is how the world lives when it has no Father to trust. But you do have one. And here is the quiet comfort: your Father already knows what you need. You are not informing a stranger. You are trusting a Father who saw the need before you did.

Matthew 6:33-34 (BSB)

³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.

Here is where the worry goes. Not into more planning, but into a new first thing. Put God’s kingdom before the food and the clothes. Seek Him first, and He takes care of the rest. Then leave tomorrow where it belongs. You only have to trust Him for today.

Jesus never says the needs are not real. He says the Father is more real. Look at the birds. Look at the flowers. Then look up, and trust the One who feeds them all.

Personal Application

1. What worry has been pulling your mind in many directions this week?

2. What would it look like to seek God first, before that worry, today?

Decision of the day: Name one thing you keep worrying about. Hand it to the Father in prayer this morning, out loud. Then do the next small, faithful thing in front of you, and leave tomorrow to Him.

Pray to Close

The central truth: Do not worry; seek first the kingdom, and your Father who feeds the birds will care for you.

Praise: praise God as a Father who feeds the birds and clothes the flowers, and who values you far more.

Confess: confess the worries you have been carrying alone instead of handing to Him.

Yield: yield tomorrow to God. Ask Him to help you seek His kingdom first today.