Birds
don’t get together and say, “We’ve got to come up with a strategy to keep ourselves
alive.” They have no self-consciousness or ability to reason. But God has
planted within them the instinct or divine capacity to find what is necessary
to live. God doesn’t just create life; He also sustains it.
Job
38 : 41 and Psalm 147 : 9 tell us that baby birds cry out to God for their
food. Jesus said that even though they don’t sow, or reap, or gather surplus
into their barns, their heavenly Father hears and provides for them. Now that
isn’t an excuse for idleness. You won’t see a bird standing on the edge of a
tree with its mouth wide open. Perhaps you’ve noticed: it never rains worms!
God feeds birds through the instinct that tells them where to find food. They
work hard for it. They’re always busy searching, gobbling up little insects,
migrating with the seasons, preparing their nests, caring for their young, then
teaching them to fly and pushing them out of the nest at the right time, and so
on.
Birds
don’t worry about where they are going to find food; they just go about their
business until they find it, and they always do because God is looking out for
them. Birds have no reason to worry and if they don’t, what are you worrying
for? . . .
Are you not much better than a bird? No bird was ever created in the
image of God; no bird was ever designed to be a joined heir with Jesus Christ;
….If God sustains the life of a bird, don’t you think He will take care of you?
Life is a gift from God. If God gives you the greater gift of life itself,
don’t you think He will give you the lesser gift of sustaining that life? Of
course He will, so don’t worry about it.
Keep in mind, of course, that like a bird, we have to work because God has
designed that people should earn their bread by the sweat of their brows (Gen.
3 : 19). If we don’t work, it is not fitting that we eat (2 Thess. 3 : 10).
Just as God provides for the birds through their instinct, so God provide for
people through their efforts.
Taken from the book of John MacArthur Jr., "Anxious for Nothing", pages 22 - 24
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