1 John 3:1-3
Children of God
1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Matthew 6:25-34
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Matthew 18:1-5
The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
Jesus tells us not to be anxious in our lives...When we believe in God, we can see that He will take care of us...When we are very young, we take many things for granted and many who are very young, believe in God...But as we mature and get older this belief is sometimes harder for us to realize and it maybe harder to keep the faith...As we age, we think we are taking care of ourselves, and we are working and getting through the days on our own...Jesus tells us that God is involved in our lives, and we should seek His kingdom of heaven..
Then Jesus teaches us that unless we change and become more like little children, we will never enter His kingdom of heaven...Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of a child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven...And whoever welcomes one such child in Jesus' name welcomes Him...
We need to be like children to enter His kingdom...We we are especially young, we cannot take care of ourselves...And when we are young children, we do not know much about power and rule...We really do not give power and rule a lot of thought when we are very young children...All power and rule comes from our parents...We must take that for granted...I do not think we even care about power and rule when we are young and being taken care of...Our position (in our families) when we are young in family life is not about rank or power, it is about being taken care of by our parents...Our father and mother take care of us, so maybe we instinctively give them power over us -and do not concern ourselves about it...Again, we are not thinking that I am more powerful than my father or my mother...I do not think those kind of thoughts enter our minds, as long as our parents are taking care of us...When we are little we look up to our parents and see them as bigger, stronger, smarter, and taller than us...They are the ones who clothe us, give us food, give us shelter, keep us warm, and give us especially -the love that we need...The things in a child's life, are mostly taught by our parents, so power and learning morality, right and wrong, and many of our views are shaped by our parents because they are taking care of us...We really do not care that are parents are in charge of us and over us and love us,as we are learning these things and new things...We just seem to take those things for granted, as we grow and learn and are taught right and wrong...Our parents are much in control of our lives...Our parents very much help us, until we are old enough to get out and be on our own...All our young days, we just take for granted we will live, survive, and play, learn and grow as children...And when we taken care of, positions and power mean very little to little children...
We are children of God...And God takes care of His children...When we listen and study Jesus' teachings, it is God who is really in control...It is God who is clothing us, it is God who is giving us what we need to eat, it is God who is giving us what we need to drink...And God is LOVING us...And we should seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you...God gives His children LOVE...Children naturally take for granted they will have clothes, food, and water to drink...And to be cared for and loved...Children someone know they will get those things...We completely depend (and depended) on our parents when we were young...When Jesus says we should be more like children, we (as children) much better see (maybe through the Holy Spirit or maybe through a God given instinct) that there is Somebody helping us...It is God's Power and it is God's Rule...As children we can look up to God and see that He is Almighty and in Power...God is in control of the world and of us...As young children, we better understand this about power and rule -and being taken care of...But as a child I really did not realize this until I was much older and learned this from reading the Words of Jesus...