READ: MATTHEW 6:25-34; PHILIPPIANS 3:7-21

Lots of things in life can feel important in the moment. You might worry about your grades. You might think you need the most fashionable clothes. Maybe you feel pressure to be the best athlete on your team. Maybe you want to learn to drive and get your license and a car as soon as you can…but what happens when things don’t turn out like you’d hoped?

When your grades slip, when you don’t have the money for all the things you want, when you don’t perform well in your sport, when you don’t have the independence you thought you’d have…you might start to worry. You might feel like you’re not good enough.

When our circumstances leave us feeling disappointed and frustrated with life, what can we do? We can turn to Jesus. He sees our disappointments, and He grieves our losses with us. And He also reminds us that life is about so much more than all of that.

You don’t have to have the nicest clothes to try to fit in. After all, true friends should accept you for who you are, not based on what you wear. And although it’s good to do well in school, you don’t have to get the best grades. Sports can be great, but winning isn’t the most important thing either. Milestones like driving sometimes come with pressure, but you don’t have to do everything in the timeframe anyone else thinks is right—you can go at your own pace.

God has given you life, and He invites you to live it with Him. Because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, you can know the God who made the entire universe, and who made you specifically, and you can be part of the good work of His kingdom. There is so much more to this life than all the little things we find ourselves concerned with moment by moment. Things like grades and clothes are temporary, but God’s kingdom is eternal. You can trust your life to Him and know it will be more meaningful and purposeful than you could have imagined. • Bethany Acker

• What kinds of things have made you feel disappointed or frustrated lately? Consider taking a moment to talk to God about it. He feels your hurts and grieves your losses alongside you.

• Especially when things don’t seem to be going right, how could it be freeing to rely on God to give purpose and meaning to your life and to provide for all your needs? What might it look like for you to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness”? (Matthew 6:33; 22:36-40)

“Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing?” Matthew 6:25b (CSB)