The New Testament records that Jesus told a group of his followers not to worry about where their food and clothing would come from. He used the analogy of how God feeds the birds and clothes the flowers.

I don't think the point of that statement was to say that everyone who has faith will live a long life or that what they need will always be provided. Because just as birds and flowers eventually die, so do all people.

I think the point should be taken as this: that mere survival shouldn't be the focus. That the spirit is what matters most, because the body is going to die, but the spirit will live on (in Jesus' time the average lifespan was only 30 or 40 years old).

So don't "store up for yourself treasures on earth . . . but store up for yourself treasures in heaven."

"Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

"Isn't life more than food, and the body more than clothes?"

In other words, don't you have greater work to do? Isn't your body a vessel for you spirit? Isn't the body itself just an illusion?

In Christianity there are many believers who think that if they have enough faith they can avoid illness and death and that God will make them rich. But they ignore the fact that eventually, not that long from now, they're going to die.

It might make us feel good to believe that a higher power will always heal us and give us an "abundant" life, but even if that were true, it would be temporary. Jesus didn't escape death, nor did he live an abundant life.

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