Magazines · Matthew 6:24-34

"Therefore take no anxious thought" (ver. 31). This is to encourage us to have confidence in the Lord. I suppose the whole life of the Gentiles is taken up with these questions, "What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? "Our Father knows that we have need of these things, and He never withdraws His eyes from the righteous. What a blessed thing to have our souls stayed upon Him! What we have had before us here has some connecting link with the training Elijah had when taken to the brook Cherith. The Lord was training him for what we have in 1 Kings 18 that follows. He proved the Lord's care. The ravens brought him bread and flesh, till the brook dried up. Then he was taken to a widow. The Lord refers to this in Luke 4. There were many widows in Israel, but Elijah was sent to a Gentile, and you know what occurred. It was a blessed day for her when Elijah came there. But that was not Elijah's deepest lesson. He learnt that God was the God of resurrection. The apostle Paul at Troas (2 Cor. 1) was in great distress; but he too learnt that God was the God of resurrection. God gives faith and He sustains faith. Untried faith is no faith. If a person has great faith, he will have great trials. Little faith has little trials, Of the Thessalonians it was said, "Your faith grows exceedingly." Abraham's trial in Gen. 22 could not have come at the beginning of his course. He had been trained for it, and was sustained through it.