Millions of people in the world are facing a serious financial crisis. In the past two years the number of food-insecure people has doubled to 276 million. Every night men, women, and children in the developing world go to bed hungry with little prospect of their situation improving. They don’t have enough money to buy the food they need or to pay rising energy costs. The war in Ukraine has made their situation more serious. The United Nations estimates that global food prices have increased by one third and oil prices by almost two thirds. Almost 700 million people, 9% of the world’s population, live in extreme poverty on less that $2 a day. Most live in sub-Saharan Africa. In Britain families and those on lower incomes are anxious about how they will be able to pay their bills as prices go up.

Jesus encouraged his disciples to pray to God about their daily needs. Jesus spent most of his time with ordinary people. He understood the anxieties of their daily lives. In the Lord’s Prayer, he taught them to pray, “Our Father who art in heaven, give us our daily bread.” God is concerned for us and our daily needs. When we pray to him, he hears us and will help us.

Jesus also encouraged his disciples to trust God when they were anxious. In the Sermon on the Mount, he told them to look at the birds and to see how God feeds them: “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?”

He also told them to look at the flowers of the field: “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. If God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. So, don’t worry saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”