The Upper Room Daily Devotionals in Nashville, Tennessee, United States "God is Watching" for Thursday, 16 February 2017 with Scripture: Matthew 6:25-34

The Upper Room Daily Devotionals in Nashville, Tennessee, United States "God is Watching" for Thursday, 16 February 2017 with Scripture: Matthew 6:25 “Therefore, I tell you, don’t worry about your life — what you will eat or drink; or about your body — what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds flying about! They neither plant nor harvest, nor do they gather food into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they are? 27 Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to his life?
28 “And why be anxious about clothing? Think about the fields of wild irises, and how they grow. They neither work nor spin thread, 29 yet I tell you that not even Shlomo in all his glory was clothed as beautifully as one of these. 30 If this is how God clothes grass in the field — which is here today and gone tomorrow, thrown in an oven — won’t he much more clothe you? What little trust you have!
31 “So don’t be anxious, asking, ‘What will we eat?,’ ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘How will we be clothed?’ 32 For it is the pagans who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all. 33 But seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Don’t worry about tomorrow — tomorrow will worry about itself! Today has enough tsuris already!
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The LORD watches over you — the LORD is your shade at your right hand.[Psalm 121:5 (NIV)]
Thirteen years ago, I suffered a severe stroke. I was only 52 and in good health. This brain stem stroke left me totally paralyzed from the neck down, without the ability to talk or eat. Within two minutes, my life had changed.
I spent the next year trying to regain some of what I had lost. But with God watching over me, I went from a drooling, motionless person unable to breathe without an oxygen machine to someone able to breathe on her own and to move her head. After a year’s hard work, I was able to go home. But what was next for me? TV or music all day? I tried that for the first few years; but I wasn’t content without keeping my mind active. Again, God was watching over me. Through a friend, God provided a way for me to function with more independence. I can now control my wheelchair with my head and headrest. And every letter and word of this story was written with the use of my eyes.
God is watching over us and sees what we need — whether another person or even a machine — to help us express our thoughts.
The Author: Gail Babula (New Jersey, USA)
Thought for the Day: God is watching over me today.
Prayer: Thank you, God, for watching over us in our times of need. Amen.
Prayer focus: Those who are paralyzed

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