Our time together in Matthew 6 is coming to an end. Thanks to all who participated, who prayed, who read Jesus’s words with us each week.

This final week of memorization concludes with an important and beautiful message from Jesus:

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Matthew 6:33-34 (ESV)

As we strive to put God’s will above all else, isn’t it good to know we can trust Him to take care of our needs? He promises to place alongside us every necessity to accomplish His purpose in our lives.

So today let’s thank Him for enough grace for this day. And let’s wait without anxiety to uncover tomorrow’s grace when tomorrow gets here.

One day at a time.

We pray you’ve been blessed through our months together in Matthew 6. May these words from the Word continue to resonate in you and through you in the months and years to come!

Please share your final thoughts on Matthew 6 in the comments.

Attention Matthew 6 Memorizers:

This is the next-to-last week before our last scheduled one-week break. So spend time this week with Jesus’s words below and we’ll see you back to learn new words in two weeks! (Then only four weeks left.)

Now with this week’s verses . . . 

Look Up!

See any birds today?

We often fail to notice them as they fly by, minding their own business as we mind ours.

But Jesus used them as an important example of how to live without worries. God takes care of them regardless of their inabilities to do much for themselves.

How much more so will He do for us?

Bird Photo Challenge

Please take a photo of birds you see this week (or dig one off your phone from the past) and share with us on Instagram @DoNotDepart using the hashtag #Matthew6 and with our Hide His Word Facebook group.

If even the birds don’t look worried with all the obstacles facing them, we, too, can live freer of anxiety under God’s protective care.

What’s your favorite bird to watch?

Tag us on Instagram @DoNotDepart, #Matthew6 or post in our Hide His Word Facebook group. We want to see how God inspires you to “Look at the birds of the air.”

Jesus has been giving us many dichotomies in Matthew 6 so far:

• do things for show OR for God in private (vs 1-18)
• have treasures on earth OR treasures in heaven (vs 19-21)
• see through healthy eyes and light OR bad eyes and darkness (vs 22-23)

In this week’s verses, He adds two more pairs:

• be a slave to God OR to wealth (vs 24)
• be anxious over food and clothing OR have peace about life

Inside Out Choices

We don’t often think of these as choices. I don’t think I’m consciously choosing to worry, for example, but I hear Jesus inviting me through these verses (and the ones that follow) to consider it deeper.

We all go through similar outward motions, but what is motivating us on the inside?

As we memorize this week, let’s ask God to reveal to us which master we are choosing to serve: our own needs for security and admiration and control, or God’s will for forgiveness and gratitude and righteousness?

Which opposites in Matthew 6 have caused you to pause and reflect? Please share any thoughts in the comments.

Do you have perfect vision?

The past few years I’ve had to use reading glasses to see up close. Without them, I can barely read—unless the lighting is very good. With bright light my vision is clearer and I see more focused.

Jesus was telling his followers and us in Matthew 6:22-23 (our memory verses for this week) that light is critical to vision. With healthy views, we can see clearer and stay more focused.

As you meditate on these verses this week, look for light sources around you to remind you of the Light source within you. Keep Him shining brightly.

How do you keep your eyes healthy, physically and spiritually? Please share in the comments.

We are rich.

In one sense or another, we all have wealth. What do we count as our treasures?

As we read Jesus’s words in Matthew 6:19-21 this week, let us ponder:

• What do I value the most?
• What brings me the most satisfaction?
• What would I most hate to lose?

Then may we reflect on if our treasures are mostly comforts in this life or are of value forever.

Jesus wasn’t opposed to pleasure now, but He was encouraging the highest pleasure found in God, both now and later.

We’ll continue to see this over the next three weeks as we memorize these six verses, Matthew 6:19-24, on “treasuring.” We hope you’ll stay with us.

What are your richest treasures? Please share in the comments.

We all enjoy appreciation for a job well done. But as we mature, we want our motives to be deeper than a desire for temporary applause from the crowd.

In our memory verses this week (Matthew 6:17-18), we see again this same repetitive message from Jesus:

Don’t be a righteous show-off.

Instead of emphasizing to others how much we suffer, what if we showed them our joy instead? Even in our suffering. Because even as we fast, we are being rewarded, if not now, for sure later.

Jesus didn’t say to live a deprived life but rather an anointed life.

Are you fasting this Lenten season?

Have you told anybody about it?

It’s not wrong to tell.

But what Jesus was warning his disciples about in Matthew 6:16 (this week’s memory verse) was this: don’t make a show of it.

It’s good to question our motives behind any of the spiritual disciplines that we practice. Jesus encouraged it.

• Are we giving so that others will praise us? (Matthew 6:2)
• Are we praying in public so people will see us? (Matthew 6:5)
• Are we fasting so men will notice? (Matthew 6:16)

If yes, then these disciplines are an end to themselves. Yes, we will receive praise, others will see, others will notice. These are powerful motivators that we are all lured by.

But is that really what we want?

As we memorize and meditate on Matthew 6:16 this week, may we ask ourselves:

Why am I doing this? Am I simply seeking admiration from other people?

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

“Trespasses” here means literally “falling to one side” (Greek word paraptoma).

Has anyone fallen on you lately? And hurt your feelings or wounded your relationship? How hard or easy has it been to pull out from under it, and love the person anyway?

Or perhaps you’re struggling to forgive yourself for yet another fall of your own.

We all fall off our chosen paths quite frequently, yet God awaits us with open arms each time we return back to Him.

As we read and memorize Matthew 6:14-15 this week, may we each be helped to forgive others and ourselves more easily as we remember how the Father forgives us. 

Are we in debt to God?

And if so, how could we ever pay that debt?

As we continue memorizing the Lord’s Prayer this week (Matthew 6:12-13), we see Jesus teaching His disciples to ask God to forgive their debts. The Jews frequently called sins, “debts.” So most scholars also view “debts” here as sins.

On our own, we can never undo all the damage our sins create from our disobedience and selfishness and lack of love for God and others.

Since we can’t pay it back (although we can offer restitution to others when possible), we need to be forgiven for it.

We all need God’s forgiveness of our sins on a daily basis. Jesus said to ask for it.

As God releases what we owe because of Christ’s payment for it, it loosens us to also forgive others the moral obligations we could hold over them.

Let’s praise God for our freedom from debt this week as we dwell on Jesus’s words.

[Note: Where’s the rest of the Lord’s Prayer in the ESV? The familiar doxology “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen” is omitted in more modern translations. Because these words aren’t found in the most ancient transcripts, many authorities now dismiss their authenticity and no longer include them. However, the words still ring true and are valuable to know and recite.]