The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good. Proverbs 15:3
“To know that it is God’s business, and not ours, to care for what we have is the second inner attitude of simplicity. God is able to protect what we possess. We can trust Him. Does that mean that we should never take the keys out of the car or lock the door? Of course not. But we know that the lock on the door is not what protects the house. It is only common sense to take normal precautions, but if we believe that precaution itself protects us and our goods, we will be riddled with anxiety. There simply is no such thing as “burglar proof” precaution. Obviously, these matters are not restricted to possessions but include such things as our reputation and our employment. Simplicity means the freedom to trust God for these (and all) things.
Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth (New York: HarperCollins, 1998) 88-89.
Nothing escapes God’s gaze. It’s God’s business to watch over us. That’s the second inner attitude we must grasp to navigate away from anxiety and toward simplicity.
During times of social unrest, people who don’t have this attitude go to “bomb shelter” measures for self-preservation which compounds fears and results in isolation.
Don’t go there. We are all tempted to make life burglar proof, but there’s no such thing. It’s all just rationalization from the evil one that aims to immobilize us. We must not be fooled by lies.
The answer is to trust God to do His business while we do ours. That positions us to go through life with simplicity and generosity. In so doing, we share spiritual and material blessings all around.