Day 168: Luke 12:1–34

The Gentile world eagerly seeks all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek His kingdom, and these things will be provided for you” (vv. 30–31).

If we truly believe what God says about our value to Him, our lives will be dramatically altered. Based on this long segment of Scripture from Luke 12, which includes a wide mix of teachings and parables and different kinds of audiences, I want to suggest five ways such a belief makes a difference.

1. Believing our great value to God frees us from much hypocrisy. Christ opened His bold declarations in Luke 12 with a warning against hypocrisy. The primary meaning of the word is “pretending.” Please give special attention to His specific audience. Although He was surrounded by crowds of unbelievers and religious leaders, Jesus began to speak “first to his disciples” (Luke 12:1). True disciples who follow Christ and lead others to do likewise face great temptation to be hypocritical. Christ warned, “Be on your guard” (v. 1). In other words, if we’re going to live free of hypocrisy, we must proactively guard against it. The bottom line of hypocrisy is the need for people to think more highly of us than we really are. Let’s face it. It’s easier to act than to clean up our act.

Hypocrisy has so much to prove. Ironically, it seeks to prove that which is not even true. But when we accept our real value to God, we don’t have anything left to prove. We can be real because we are of great value to the only True Judge.

2. Believing our great value to God frees us from unnecessary fear. Luke 12:4 comes like a shock wave to our systems: “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.” Why do we have such difficulty grasping Jesus’ point of view? Because we are far more convinced of the “here and now” than the “after that.” Eternity is a far greater reality than this short breath of time. If we are in His fold and are called His friends, Christ’s word to us is, “Don’t be afraid; you are worth more.”

Keith and I keep a bird feeder on the back porch. I watch the sparrows scatter the seed and flutter their wings. They are not beautiful like other birds that grace our yard. They are plain and ordinary. But I love knowing that God never forgets a single one of them. When fear seeks to assail me, I go to the window and am reminded again—if He cares for them, He most assuredly cherishes me. After this short breath is a long “after that.”

3. Believing our great value to God frees us to acknowledge Him shamelessly. Verse 8 assures us that Christ Jesus can hardly wait to acknowledge us before the very “angels of God”—even after all our frailties and failures! (Check out Jude 24.) If He is unashamed of us in all our imperfections, how can we be ashamed of Him, our Redeemer and our Deliverer?

Yet at one time or another, all of us have faced the temptation to shrink away from openly acknowledging Christ. I’ve learned one of the best ways to get over these attacks of shame. Do it over and over until it loses its intimidation! Just be honest with Him and tell Him you’re afraid. Tell Him all the reasons why. Then ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon you and make you a powerful witness (see Acts 1:8). He will! Then one day, He’ll acknowledge you before the angels!

4. Believing our great value to God frees us from the need for riches. In verse 15, Christ warns us to also “be on [our] guard” against all kinds of greed. Then He reminds us of a powerful truth: “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Aren’t you thankful for that? I’m reminded of a friend’s statement: “We act out what we believe, not what we know.” If we believe our value to God and believe our life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions, why then do we have such an abundance of possessions? Perhaps we know Luke 12:15 with our heads, but we really don’t believe it with our hearts.

James 1:17 tells us our Father is the giver of all good gifts. Throughout all of eternity, we will be lavished in the limitless wealth of the CEO of the universe. Until then, we show ourselves to be sons and daughters of the one true God when we give, give, and give. Let’s keep shoving that abundance out the door to help others in need, and God will lay up treasures for us in His own divine storage lot.

5. Believing our great value to God frees us from much worry. “Life is more than food” (v. 23). I need a needlepoint of that for my kitchen! How about you? The issue of food, however, is not the point. The point is worry. I’m not sure many things compare to the challenge of ceasing to worry. Maybe one reason why is because we have so many prime opportunities to practice it! But you know what? We’re never going to overcome worry by eliminating reasons to worry. Rest assured, life isn’t going to suddenly fix itself. God wills that we overcome worry even when overwhelmed by reasons to worry.

Christ summed up the futility of worry in verses 25 and 26. We can’t add a minute to our life by worrying. Simply put, worry is useless—even when we’re worrying about the lives of our children. I am prone to worry somewhat about myself but endlessly over them. Yet all our worry, even when done in the name of love, can accomplish absolutely nothing. When will we learn to turn our worry effort into prayer?