If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. ³⁹ If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it. Matthew 10:38,39.

Everyone lives every day in the shadow of death whether we want to acknowledge it or not.  The physical life of our body is a precarious thing.  It can dissipate easily under the influence of sickness or accident.

As a result many people spend a lot of time and energy trying to ensure it lasts just that little bit longer or isn’t taken away suddenly.  This extends to our immediate loved ones as well.  Telling people to “take care” is such a common phrase that we hardly notice it.

This is all very natural but runs counter to what Jesus tells us to do if you want to be His disciple.

It also doesn’t make sense, especially if you are a Christian who believes in the resurrection of the dead and a better life to come because of what Jesus did on the Cross for us all.  Why spend all this time and energy trying to put off the inevitable when what comes afterwards is so glorious?

However, no where in the bible does it say that it is a good thing to be reckless with your life or to take it so you can get to heaven sooner.

What Jesus does say is this:  Don’t worry about your life, how you will get your next salary, for your heavenly Father knows you need these things.  Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well.

²⁵ “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to 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, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? ²⁷ And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? ²⁸ And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, ²⁹ yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! ³¹ Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ ³² For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

³⁴ “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will ^[v]care for itself. ^[w]Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25-34