Every time I sit down to meditate on the Word of God the Holy Spirit always seems to tie it back to Rom 8:29. But sometimes He links my study back to what has become my most important life verse. It is always found in connection with my walk through this life beside Jesus. And I remember exactly when He put that verse in my heart and how difficult it was then to keep it there, before me every day. Even today, there is often the temptation to forget that most important command and slip into the way of the world.

As I think about it, it falls with so many other verses that remind us of the “simplicity” of the commands Jesus has given us. Here are a couple of examples:

2 Cor 1:12 For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.

2 Cor 11:3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 

To me, “simplicity in Christ” is the result of receiving His Spirit, recognizing and relying on Him, and obeying Him as I am led by His Word. He has designed it all to make our life down here on earth “simple.” And that is how I remind myself that one of the critical keys to leading a “simple life” is the “simplicity” of the command He gave me many years ago.

Matt 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Oh, how it took so much time and effort to get that one command down into my spirit. It seemed as though, no matter how hard I tried, I could only go for a day or so and then either the enemy was attacking me about yesterday or I found something to worry about regarding tomorrow. I so easily forgot the Lord’s words… every minute you take away from the 1,440 I have given you today to reflect on yesterday or fret about tomorrow steals from the time you need in order to accomplish what I set before you today.

Believe it or not (I’m so slow sometimes) it took me most of 18 months living in a hotel with Diane for that command to become cemented into my spirit. And the result has been not only “freeing,” it has opened up a whole new level of peace in the midst of worldly and Christian challenges. And all He has to do to keep me on track is to remind me of “birds, flowers and grass.”

Matt 6:25-30 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry 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, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Yes, the simplicity of birds, flowers and grass is all I need to remind me of how simple life can be when all of my faith, trust, and confidence is placed in Jesus… one day at a time. They are the keys that remind me how much He cares for me and loves me when the cares of this world try and enter in. How simple it is for Him to guide me and care for me just as He does the birds of the air. He uses the flowers to remind me how they flourish just where He put them and how much He wants me to flourish right where He has placed me if I will just stand still and wait on Him as the flowers do.

And the grass? How temporary it is, grown today and cut down and burned tomorrow, and yet He is the one who ensures that it is fed and watered to protect the field from eroding; over and over again. How much more does He do all the simple things in life for me that I take for granted. How about breathing? That in itself is one of the, if not the greatest miracle in life. We take somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 breaths a minute of our life; 21,600 every day. And we go on day-by-day taking that simple act for granted… Just like the simplicity that is in Christ.

The bottom line for me is that Matt 6:34 is a constant reminder of the time that I waste on yesterday or tomorrow; time that I should spend on concentrating on His work. The birds, the flowers, and the grass remind me of how simple Jesus has made this life if I will just put my total trust and faith in Him and keep Him as the center of my focus… 21,600 times every day.