During the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us not to worry, Matthew 6:25-34. In this passage three times Jesus tells his disciples not to be anxious, not to worry.
Worry is Futile
Matthew 6:25-27 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
Worry is empty and gets you nowhere. We need to learn to trust God. He gave us our life and he will sustain it. An example is the birds of the air. Birds don’t plant any crops. Birds do not store any food in barns or silos. Birds do not shop at supermarkets and they don’t use refrigerators or freezers. Each new day they must hunt and gather food, yet they don’t seem to worry. They are up every morning singing joyfully.
Can you imagine a scene in the bird nest where Momma Bird asks Papa Bird, What’s wrong Papa why aren’t you sleeping?
Papa bird says, “I’m worried. We have three newly hatched chicks in the nest. How can I sleep when I do not know what we will do if I can’t find any worms tomorrow?
Matthew 6:26 says, Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them
The term used for a having a “nest egg” stored did not come from the birds. They do not store anything. God takes care of them each day. Be like the birds and “Don’t Worry be Happy” (blessed).
Jesus cares for the birds, how much more for you? You were made in the image of God. You were created with purpose and not hapless chance. God designed you and has a special purpose and plan for you.
One man worried so much that when he went to the dentist that he left his car in a no parking zone, so he could worry about not getting a ticket, and take his mind off worrying about the dentist visit.
Worry is futile because it doesn’t change anything. You can’t lengthen your life through worry. If anything doctors will tell you it would shorten your life. Worry produces no profitable results. God knows the need.
There are two things you should never worry about:
1. things you can’t change
2. things you can change
Faithless
Jesus used the same penetrating words that he spoke to the disciples after He calmed the storm, do you still have no faith? Here it was “Oh, you of little faith.”
Faith and worry are on the opposite ends of the spectrum. If you are overcome with worry, that is a sure indicator that you are not doing well in the faith department.
Matthew 6:28-30 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ’What shall we eat?’ or ’What shall we drink?’ or ’What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
We should recognize God’s providential care. Faith is trusting God to provide. God is so great, so loving, our lack of faith sends a signal we don’t really believe that.
Jesus said; don’t worry about what to wear. God will take care of that. But what about the high price it costs to purchase clothes. Isn’t that justification to worry? No. We probably struggle less today to meet our basic necessities than ever before.
Look at the lilies of the field, they don’t labor or spin, yet they are clothed in more glory than Solomon. Read 1st Kings or 2nd Chronicles about the splendor of Solomon. Queen Sheeba came to see Solomon and his glory and she said, “Behold the half was not told to me” 1 Kings 10:7.
Solomon in his entire splendor was not clothed like one of the Lilies of the field. Look at the beautiful flowers. They simply depend on God for rain, sun minerals. They don’t strive for those things. God provides them all.
If God clothes a plant, will he not much more cloth you? Trusting God is the heart of Jesus message. We need to exercise faith to grow in faith, like a muscle.
Worry is Worldly
Matthew 6:31-32 So do not worry, saying, ’What shall we eat?’ or ’What shall we drink?’ or ’What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
The world spends all their energies running after material needs. We can easily find ourselves acting like the world. There is a saying; some people eat to live others live to eat. Worldly people let their attention rest on physical needs and pleasures and luxuries.
Jesus wasn’t teaching that we are to give no concern to these things, but rather we are not to live. The point is that we are not to live as if these things were all that there is to living. The spiritual aspect is most important.
Priorities
The remedy for worry is not to take two aspirin and call the doctor in the morning. To confront worry and anxiety we seek God. We put God first and we move from worry to faith. This is how we live by faith instead of becoming overly worried about the future.
Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
All these things are added. Our basic needs are food and clothes. God knows what you need. God is sufficient to provide. We must put our trust in Him.
Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
This was a verse I really had to come to grips with when I worked as a material planner for Quaker Oats. My job was to plan tomorrow for the factory. There had to be enough sugar, salt, baking powder, packaging, shipping cartons etc, etc, but not too much.
I was primarily responsible to keep a giant warehouse filled with exactly what was needed for tomorrow. It was even harder because the projection reports of what we needed could be wrong.
I would get a call that woke me up at midnight telling me that the production line was down. I slept with the computer printout near my bed. I would tell them there is still a pallet of containers out there in that warehouse now go find them. When the production line was down the costs of losses were measured in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour.
There is no one who does not have something to worry about. We are all called to the same response to what it is we might worry about. Put God first.
Has worry dominated your life? Put an end to the spiritual schizophrenia. Don’t live having faith one moment and worry the next. To have a consistent walk with God you have to put Jesus Christ first in your life.
