Christian Chefs Fellowship - Devotional Articles

"(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 important than food, and the body more important than clothes? (26) Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in 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?"
Matthew 6:25-27 (NIV)

As you just read, Jesus personally said in the above verses that worry is straight out useless! I'm sure everybody reading this agrees with that completely, so why do we still do it so very often?

Everybody has their own excuses for worrying, whether they be in regards to a relationship they're struggling with, struggles with their job, or any number of other little struggles we go through.

Through my personal experience, I know many cooks and chefs start worrying when things don't go right in the kitchen. Like when we get straight out slammed during dinner service and we start worrying about getting the food to the customers without them waiting too awfully long. There are even tendencies to worry about what others (ie. our bosses) are thinking about the quality of our cooking, how fast we are, and other of our numerous traits. Instead of worrying, we should just do the best we possibly can because Christ has commanded us against being slothful (not doing your very best).

Thinking about it, I too am guilty of worrying, but why do we worry about such petty things as these? Think about those people who are being persecuted for the sake of the church! Just yesterday, I was reading a news article about a man named Xu Yanghai from China. He got off work one day (a couple weeks ago on New Year's Eve) and went to his house to have some people over so they could praise God together. Police followed him, and once the meeting started, they came in, beat and arrested the group. On New Year's Day reports said people saw him being dragged along on the floor of the police station. Xu very well knew that this kind of thing could happen, but instead of worrying about it, He left it in God's hands and is probably still praising Him in spite of it. These kinds of things happen on a daily basis to our brothers and sisters in Christ, while we often ignore the news, thinking only of our own little worries that we usually bring upon ourselves.

God never said that life will be easy for us, but He did say that He will provide for our EVERY need! Time spent worrying is wasted; we could be using that time to trust God instead. We could be trusting Christ to work through us to resolve whatever challenges we might be going through and to move on, and in the process, finding a way to glorify Himself.

So exactly what is it that we do when we worry? We mull over and over in our minds and show with our actions what the problem is. On the other hand, if we get out of the flesh and into the spirit, God provides through us, and with that we are able to work on resolving the problem. As Jesus said in regards to persecution, "When they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." Matthew 10:19 (NIV)

Once we get to the point of trusting God with the worries we have of today, we tend to start worrying about what the future has for us; like what job to take next and who and when we should marry. Jesus said, "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." As He said here, we should be trusting God and God alone to take care of every aspect of not just today, but also our future - according to His will rather than according to our fleshly desires.

God has promised all of us who have trusted Him to be our Savior that we have been born into His family for ETERNITY. Therefore, we truly have nothing to worry about even when we have challenges in our life like Xu Yanghai is probably having in his life right this moment. We're only on this world for so many years, and those few years in comparison with the thought of spending the rest of eternity in Heaven with Christ Jesus himself makes worrying, as mentioned in the above quoted verses, a straight out waste of time.

by Ira Krizo
CCF Director

If God is speaking to your heart about these things, and you need somebody to talk with, please don't hesitate to e-mail us about your need and somebody from the Fellowship will contact you as soon as possible. If you have a prayer request or would like to start a theological discussion on this or any other topic please feel free to post it in our Message Boards.

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