Series: Youth for Jesus
Number: Vol. 2, No. 39
“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?” (Luke 12:25-26NIV)
The book of 2Kings 20 gives us an account of how King Hezekiah, one of the greatest kings the nation of Judah ever had, became ill to the point of death and of how God sent His messenger, Prophet Isaiah, to tell him to put his house in order, for he would not recover from his illness but die. But instead for Hezekiah to readily accept that death sentence from God, he decided to pray to Him for mercy and healing. And did God answer him or not? He did. He answered him and even decided to add fifteen more years to the ones he already used. (Cf. 2Kings 20:1-11)
Now that is amazing, or what do you think? Fifteen more years to Hezekiah’s life! Just like that! I mean that God just added those years to this man’s life, just as simply as you would add a pinch of salt to your stew. Once again, I say that is amazing; it is just mind-blowing. And I can almost hear someone saying, “Oh, I want that. I wish I could have something like that.”
To say the fact, who does not want longevity. People wish for death on their sick beds or desire to commit suicide mostly because they consider their cases to be hopeless. They simply cannot see what joy, comfort or peace staying here in the world offers them again. So, they want to die and escape from everything that is troubling them and making their lives miserable. But if they knew just one thing to do to make their lives pleasant again, just one thing to do to take away their pains and exceedingly great sorrow, they would most assuredly tear whatever will they have written, take back whatever parting words they have said and say, “Oh, I want to live again and enjoy life too.”
And if you are one of such individuals, wishing for death to come to you now or wanting to kill yourself because of your miseries and misfortunes, I want you to know that you don’t have to die like that. That is because the life of peace, health, comfort and joy you want, which your money, influence, fame, education or power has not been able to give you, is something God is able to freely give to you.
Our Lord Jesus, as we see in our opening text, once while talking to His disciples about the need for them to do away with all forms of worries in their lives, said something very striking to them. He said, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?” (Luke 12:25-26NIV) Look at that. There is nothing any one of us can do by ourselves to increase the length of our days here on earth by just one hour. Our worrying about this won’t even make it happen. Yet the Lord went on to say that increasing our length of days here on earth is a very little thing for God to do. A very little thing? I mean that is many people’s biggest problem. Do you know how much money, energy and so forth that people all around the world put everyday into staying alive? It is beyond comprehension!
Nevertheless, the Lord Jesus is saying to us that increasing our length of days is a very little thing for God to handle. Just as it was like nothing for him to add fifteen more years to Hezekiah’s years, so it is nothing for Him to add twenty, thirty, fifty or even a hundred more years to your time here on earth. At least, from what we see in the bible, people lived to be nine hundred years plus in the days before the flood of Noah’s time (Gen 5). So, it is almost nothing for God to add to your years. And if it is a little thing for Him to add to your years, then, what will increasing your resources, enlarging your business territory, bringing you a great husband or wife or giving you children of your own be for Him? Almost nothing!
All of this is why the Lord tells us not to worry about life or anything else in this life (Matt 6:25; Luke 12:22). That is because there is nothing that we need in life that is beyond what God can easily or readily make available to us. The only problem is with what we are going to do with what He gives us. The fact is that there is nothing God gives to some people that they are not going to waste on meaningless living. Even if He gives them a thousand additional years of comfort and rest, they are still going to waste them on nonsense. So, our Lord’s instruction to us is that we should stop worrying about those things that we need, which God already knows and can easily supply, but to put ourselves into taking our place in His kingdom and learning His righteousness (Matt 6:33; Luke 12:31). That way, not only will all these things that we need be given to us, but we also will have learnt how not to waste His gifts and blessings in our lives.
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