Matthew 6:25 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? 26 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? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 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? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Introduction
The problem of stress
A dear friend of mine came to me this past week to talk to me about the stress that he is facing in his ministry. He said, “It’s gotten so bad – I literally can’t handle it.” He told me he cannot even function in his job. In a field where he has worked all of his career, he cannot even do fairly basic things – even to the point where he said it will be a miracle of providence if he does not get fired. He said, “I spend twelve hours on a project and get two hours worth of work done.” This is a very strong, very solid, mature believer who I have known for years and I have never known him to be overly emotional at all. Yet the whole time he was telling me all this it sounded like he was on the verge of tears.
A couple days before that Tracy got a call from the wife of another close friend of mine. She was asking Tracy to ask me to call her husband and encourage him because he is so overcome with stress he does not know how to handle it. Both men ended up resigning from their ministries at church last week.
Our culture has tried to define that sort of thing as a mental disorder so psychologists can bill insurance companies for the counseling. But we all know that stress can push even the strongest, most mentally healthy person to the breaking point. It is not a mental disease, it is not a nervous breakdown – it is the natural result of anxiety. Jesus described it in Matthew 13 as being like a plant that is getting choked out by weeds.
The reason one Christian can handle tremendous stress and remain strong and joyful, and another finds himself crushed under the weight of the stress is not because something in him broke down, but because his source of strength got choked out.
When stress and anxiety manage to crowd the ministry of the Word of God out of your life, it has a choking effect on your spiritual life. You are still reading your Bible, you are still listening to sermons, you are still memorizing Scripture – you are doing all you can to expose yourself to the influence of the Word of God, but it is not working. It is getting choked out by the anxieties and stresses and worries in your life, so it does not have its strengthening, life-giving effect. That is why the exact same Word of God is flourishing in the soil of someone else’s heart, but it is getting choked out in the soil of your heart. And that is a terrifying thing to experience. Even though you know what is happening, you feel powerless to do anything about it. And the more the life is choked out of you the less energy you have for seeking life from God through His Word, and so it becomes a vicious cycle. As I said last week – anxiety is deadly, so our compassionate Savior takes some time in the Sermon on the Mount to teach us how to deal with stress.
It seems to me there are at least three kinds of worriers. Some worriers are aggressive pessimists, who just scan the future searching for something to fret about. The next group is what I would call the distracted worrier. They are fine while they are thinking about God being on the throne, but somehow when stress hits they just seem to forget to think about God. And third, you have the group Jesus refers to in verse 30 – those of little faith. They just have a hard time believing God’s promises and trusting Him to supply all their needs. Jesus gives us principles for overcoming all three kinds.
Review
We introduced all of this last week by looking at verses 25-26. In verse 25 we saw that your soul and body are greater than food and clothes. So if God gave you the soul and body obviously He is not going to begrudge you the food and clothes you need for that soul and body. The greater gift implies the lesser. That was Jesus’ first point.
The second principle came from bird watching. Jesus told us to look to the birds of the sky and consider the fact that God feeds them every day, and then to consider how much more valuable we are to God than they are. And that is a wonderful comfort. Birds are almost completely worthless, we are infinitely more precious to God (which is proved by the fact that He was willing to pay an infinite price to purchase us), so obviously He will take care of us.
Look to God!
And the reason we only made it that far last time is because I did not want to just tell you that God is trustworthy and loving. I wanted to try to help you feel His trustworthiness and His great love and His awesome power, because it is when we feel those things that we really trust. And to really feel them – to get so you believe them not just in your head but deep down inside your whole being is convinced, that takes some time. It requires some extended time of meditation and consideration for it to really sink in. That is what Jesus calls us to when He commands that we look at the birds in verse 26. That word look at refers not to a passing glance, but an intensive gaze for the purpose of learning. And so we spent our whole time last week gazing intently at what God is like as revealed in the way He deals with the birds.
The most important solution to anxiety is that intensive gaze upon God. If you are worried, that is usually an indication that you have taken your gaze off of God - like Peter, who was walking on water, but as soon as he turned his eyes away from Jesus and focused on the waves and the storm he immediately developed an extreme anxiety disorder and was filled with fear and was overcome by the storm around him until he looked back to Jesus again. Anxiety and worry are indicators that your gaze has turned away from God onto the circumstances.
Isaiah 26:3 You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.
Fix your gaze steadfastly on Him and He will drive out anxiety and keep you in perfect peace.
Hey there, – nice petals
So last week we tried to do that by thinking through the implications of God’s care for the birds. That should erase any cares we have about the things we need for survival. But what about other things you worry about? Most of the things we worry about are not so much about surviving or staying alive as much as the quality of life we have, so Jesus gives us another illustration starting in verse 28.
Matthew 6:28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 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?
The significance of clothes
Necessity or luxury?
Most people take this section to be essentially a repeat of the last section. It is generally assumed that food and clothes represent the basic necessities of life – the bare bones provisions needed to stay alive. But I do not see it that way. If you look at the context you will see that Jesus has been speaking about clothes in terms of wealth and riches. Those who have treasure on earth lose it because of moths. Moths eat clothes that are in storage. One of the most common forms of an extravagant lifestyle at that time was expensive clothes.
And if you look throughout the Bible and study the significance of clothing you will find the primary significance is not that it is something we need to stay alive. The primary purpose of clothing is not to maintain or prolong life, but rather to enhance human beauty. Clothes are for the purpose of making you look good. Throughout Scripture clothing is mainly for the purpose of beauty and glory, whereas nakedness is connected with shame. We see that with Noah and his three sons, and numerous other places. And beauty and glory are often connected with clothing, and our glorification in heaven is described in terms of white robes. Even God’s glory is frequently described as being like glorious clothing.
Clothes accentuate human gloriousness. And you can see that even in our culture. Generally speaking, the more formal the event the more clothes you wear. The most informal thing you wear in public is shorts and a tee-shirt. The most formal event most of us ever go to is our wedding – which is also the day when you probably have the most fabric on your body that you will ever have on indoors.
So clothes have to do with glory and honor and beauty. I don’t think Jesus means us to think about worry over clothes to be related only to bare necessities. When the average person worries about clothes they are not worried that they might have to go naked and die of exposure. They are worried that they might have to wear cheap, crummy clothes instead of really nice clothes. And that is confirmed by the fact that Jesus goes on to talk about lavish adornment.
Matthew 6:29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these [flowers].
Paper plates
If you take the petal from any flower and put it under a microscope you will see intricacy and beauty and wonders that will blow your mind. Pick out the finest fabric of the most expensive gown ever made and put it under a microscope and it looks like burlap. Some scientists spend a lifetime studying the wonders of the beauty of a flower. Nobody has to spend a lifetime to appreciate all there is to appreciate about even the most expensive dress in the world. And that is significant because the flowers are just for one day. Some of those wildflowers bloomed for only a single day and then died. The flowers of the field are like God’s paper plates. They are disposable. They are designed to fulfill their function for a very short time; then they are useful only for kindling. God is so wealthy and so powerful that He uses spectacular, million-dollar china as His paper plates. That is how concerned He is about making sure things are properly adorned with beauty and glory. If you have not noticed, God is really into beauty. And if He bestows that much beauty and glory on a paper plate – one of the most disposable things in the whole creation – a one-day flower, what do you think He is going to do with His Son’s bride, who will live forever with Him? The flower lasts a day; the duration of the rest of your existence will be co-equal with God’s – eternity.
We all want to look good. Some are more into looks than others, but I do not think there is anyone in this church who would feel good if you walked past a room and overheard some people talking about you saying, “Yeah, she is a really wonderful person and everything, but her face is just so hideously ugly that I don’t even want to look at her.” Even the least self-conscious person in this church would probably feel bad if he or she heard someone say that about them. We want to look good, and I believe that comes out of a God-given appetite for gloriousness.
God designed us to reflect His glory, and one small way to do that is by having a glorious appearance. That is why God is at work transforming us into His image with an ever increasing glory (2 Cor.3:18). Just like a little boy wants to grow up to be like his dad, God made us with an intrinsic desire to be like Him. And one of the things that is good about God is His beauty, and so we have a desire for beauty. We do not want to be hideous. We do not want to be repulsive. We want to be a delight to God and to other people in every way, including the way we look. And clothes are a big part of that – although I think this principle extends way beyond just clothes. The promise that we do not have to worry about food extends beyond just food, right? It implies we do not have to worry about water or air or shelter or any of the necessities for sustaining physical life. And the promise that we do not need to worry about clothes implies we do not have to worry about our reputation or about having favor with people we need favor with, or about having people love us or look up to us or any of what I will call all the higher needs of life. Food and water represent the most basic physical needs, and I think clothing represents the higher needs – things that you do not necessarily need to keep breathing, but things you do need nonetheless. So just as you can look at the birds and prove that you have nothing to worry about regarding the basic needs regarding survival, you can look at the flowers and prove that you have nothing to worry about regarding the other temporal aspects of life.
So what has Jesus said so far? Principle #1 – if God gave you a soul and body obviously He s not going to begrudge you the things your soul and body need. The greater gift guarantees the lesser. Principle #2 – If God takes care of the relatively worthless birds and flowers, obviously He is going to take care of you because you are so much more valuable to Him than they are. So in that case the lesser act implies the greater.
You might die, but don’t worry
More?
But before we move on to Jesus’ third principle, there is an elephant in the room we need to deal with. What about Christians who are dressed in rags? Notice the word more.
Matthew 6:30 if this is how God clothes the grass of the field … how much more will he clothe you?
Is that saying God will clothe us more beautifully than the flowers? Obviously not, because He just said that not even Solomon was dressed like a flower. Solomon was voted (by Jesus) best dressed man in the entire Old Testament. In almost four thousand years of human history he was the best dressed person Jesus could think of (and Jesus can think of a lot). And still, not even Solomon was dressed as well as a flower. No human being has ever been dressed as spectacularly as a flower, so what does Jesus mean by more?
What about the birds that starve?
And we had a similar question last week with the birds. What about the birds that starve to death? In fact, not only do some birds starve – ALL birds die. Most of the billions of birds that are alive right now will be dead in a year. So how are we supposed to derive any comfort from thinking about God’s care for us being similar to His care for the birds?
Isn’t it possible that God might let one of His children go hungry? Yes, it is. The Apostle Paul on numerous occasions went hungry for prolonged periods (2 Cor.11:27). In Luke 16 Jesus told a story about a man named Lazarus who was so poor that he was a beggar, longing to eat the crumbs that fell from a rich man’s table, and he was covered with sores and the dogs came and licked his sores. And that man was a believer. So it may very well be God’s plan for you to end up as a beggar covered in sores. How do you overcome worry when you know that it might be His plan for you to suffer all kinds of incredibly painful things in the future? You could lose your spouse, your kids, your money, your health. Usually when people try to help you with worry they do it by assuring you that the thing you are afraid of will not happen.
“Don’t worry, your loved one is going to be just fine.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure everything is going to turn out OK.”
But Jesus is not saying that. When He tells us not to worry about our lives, obviously He is not saying, “Don’t worry about dying because you will never die.” Nor is He saying, “Don’t worry about hard times because they will never come.” In fact, look down at that last sentence of the chapter.
Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
There is going to be so much new trouble tomorrow that adding to today’s load of trouble is too much. Does that seem to you like an odd way of comforting a worrier? “Hey, don’t worry – tomorrow will be loaded with trouble.” That is like the comfort He gives us in Luke 21.
Luke 21:16 Some of you to death. 17 All men will hate you because of me. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish.
Do not worry – not a hair on your head will perish, you will be just fine – the worst they can do is hate you and abuse you and kill you. What kind of comfort is it when Jesus tells us, “You will suffer, you will be mistreated, you will die – but you do not have anything to worry about because your Father in heaven will take care of you”? If there is a real possibility that all these horribly painful things could happen to me, how does any of this help me overcome worry and anxiety?
Is it just that God promises to meet all your spiritual needs, but not your physical needs? No – look at verse 33.
Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
All what things?
Matthew 6:31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
Those things. The things the pagans are running after in verse 32 – physical things. Food and drink and clothing. Jesus promises physical provisions, not just spiritual ones.
“So let me get this straight. Jesus promises physical provisions, but I might go hungry? He promises clothes, but I might end up dressed in rags? He promises to preserve my life, but I might die? How can promises like that possibly help me overcome worry?”
The answer is in verses 31-33. But before we look at those verses let me tell you a story.
Seek first the kingdom
The Bolder Boulder
The Bolder Boulder is a 10K race that draws participants from all over the world. It is one of the biggest races in the world, attracting over fifty thousand runners. Imagine you are a news reporter assigned to interview some of the runners, and most of their answers are predictable.
“What is your goal?”
“I want to run well” or some say, “I just want to finish the race.”
But then you interview one guy and his answer is different. He says, “I’m just in it for the Gatorade. I’ve watched on TV and I see how they just hand out free Gatorade to all the runners as they pass, and I thought, Man, I want to get in on that.”
So you watch this guy in the race. And at first he looks just like all the other runners. In fact, right out of the gate he runs faster than a lot of the others. He is really into this race, it seems. Until he gets to the first drink station. All the other runners just grab a cup on the run without breaking their pace. But this guy slows way down so he can drink two or three cups before getting beyond where they are passing them out. Now he is running a lot slower, as a half gallon of Gatorade sloshes around in his stomach. But he presses on. When he is tempted to quit he just closes his eyes and dreams about that next Gatorade station, and that hope is the only thing that keeps him going. It seems like an eternity to him as he watches around every corner for the next drink station. And the longer it takes the more he starts to become angry at the race organizers. They promised that they would supply the drinks in this race, and it has really been a long time. Finally he looks ahead and there it is – like an oasis in the desert - the next station! His strength is refreshed and he lengthens his stride with his eyes fixed on those little cups. He cuts off another runner in order to get the very first cup available and he throws it down his throat as fast as he possibly can so he can grab another one.
But as you watch him you are shocked to see what he does next. No sooner does he down that cup than he stops dead in his tracks. (The lady he cut off almost runs into him!) He is enraged. That cup he just drank wasn’t even Gatorade. It was water! All that faithful running – all that work – all his patient endurance, and this is how he is rewarded? Water? At this point he almost quits the race. But he realizes he has only run about a quarter of a mile; it would be embarrassing to drop out now, so he decides to press on. But he runs with no energy at all, and he talks incessantly to the runners around him about what a rough time he is having in this race – and how poorly organized it is (especially the drinks).
Now he is moving so slow that it is really taking forever to get to the next station. In fact, he only makes it about half-way to the next station before suddenly, without warning, he just leaves the race and runs down some side street.
Well, now you are really intrigued, so you follow him. You turn down that street just in time to see him going into a 7-11. He comes out with a backpack filled with thirty bottles of Gatorade – and an open bottle in each hand. And he starts running again – this time faster than ever, but not in the direction of the race. You catch up to him and ask, “Where are you going?” and he says, “There’s another 7-11 just about eight blocks from here.” That is the end of my story. My prayer is that that little parable will help you understand verses 31-33.
The pagans run after earthly supplies (Gatorade)
Matthew 6:31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
The pagans run after all these things.
The word translated run after is emphatic. epizateo (?p???t??) – zateo means to seek after something, put an epi on the front and that means to really seek hard after that thing. That is why they translate it run after. In my parable, the race is God’s calling on your life. The race organizers represent God. The drinks at the drink stations represent physical provisions you need to run the race. The pagans are like the guy who becomes so consumed with Gatorade that he does not care at all about the actual race.
Earthly provisions are for kingdom purposes
The purpose of the drinks in the Bolder Boulder is to enable to runners to run the race. And the purpose of temporal provisions in this life – things like food and clothing, is to enable us to run the race God has set out for us. What does running the race mean? It means seeking his kingdom and righteousness. The King has a kingdom, a reign, an agenda, and seeking to carry out that agenda is referred to elsewhere in the New Testament as like running a race. So God called us to seek His kingdom, which means run the race to the finish line, and, as the Organizer of that kingdom race, God has promised to supply whatever drinks you need.
Jesus’ promise to us is, “You will suffer and you will die, but don’t worry about anything because I’ll supply all your needs” When someone hears that promise and says, “That doesn’t even make sense” – the reason it does not make sense to them is because they are running for the Gatorade. And if the whole point is the drinks, then getting a little cup every quarter mile – and sometimes it is just plain water –is a joke. And if that happens you will find yourself angry at the organizer of the race because the Bolder Boulder is not exactly a fine dining experience. But if your focus is on finishing the race, you will be delighted when they hand you a cup of water, and even more delighted when it is Gatorade.
He will supply all you need … for the kingdom
You see, it all goes back to what the word “need” means in your mind. “God will supply you all that you need” – need for what? What you need to have fun? No. What you need to be comfortable? No. What you need to stay alive? No. He will supply you with everything you need to run the race He set before you. He will richly supply you with every physical thing you need to seek His kingdom and righteousness. He will supply you with everything you need to do His will. And if His will is for you to starve to death, He will supply you with the strength and joy and hope and perseverance and everything else you need to starve to death in way that honors the Lord Jesus Christ and completes your race. So the Christian who starves to death at age 24 breaks the tape at the finish line in heaven and testifies, “Yes, He richly supplied me with everything I needed to run that race.”
So when Jesus says…
Matthew 6: 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
What He is saying is – Do not make physical things the finish line. Do not make those your goal like people of this world do. Instead…
Matthew 6:33 seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Run the race and God will supply what you need to finish the race. And this is why things like nice clothing or favor with certain people can sometimes be included in the list of things we need. You do not need those things to stay alive, but you do need them, in some cases, to carry out your calling. And whatever you need to carry out God’s calling is a need, and therefore falls in the category of things God has promised you. Is a car in the category of a need or a want? It depends. If God calls you to some role in the kingdom that requires a car, then it is a need. If not, then it isn’t.
Embrace the race
So, how does all that help you with the anxieties that are keeping you up at night? this problem in your life that you have no idea how to handle, and that is causing tremendous pain. How can you go from stewing and fretting and lying awake at night to sleeping like a baby and having peace in your heart? Embrace the race. Learn to love the race. Learn to love the kingdom of God, and to regard your calling within that kingdom as the high, holy, unfathomable privilege that it is. I do not have time now to go into detail about all that His kingdom entails, so if you want that I would urge you to go back and listen through the message titled “Kingdom Praying” in the Lord’s Prayer (Sept.26, 2010). God’s kingdom is the realm where everybody obeys and honors the King. It is the realm where the Lord Jesus Christ carries out His work. And the central headquarters for the kingdom, then, is the Church. That is where people obey and honor Christ, and that is the primary means through which Jesus Christ carries out His work in this world, which is why the Church is called His body (your body is what you use to do your work). And your role in that kingdom includes all the aspects of your calling – first and foremost your role in the church, but in addition to that your role in your home and in your job and at school and in your neighborhood and in all your responsibilities.
So what is this promise that God will supply you with all the earthly necessities that you need? It is a promise that you will have absolutely every bit of food, every article of clothing, every dime of money, every relationship, every car, every house – everything that is required in order for you to fulfill your role in the kingdom. There has never been a Christian who did not have enough food or nice enough clothes to do what God called him to do. And there never will be.
Three kinds of anxiety
So with all that in mind let’s go back to the three kinds of worriers – the aggressive ones, the distracted ones, and those with little faith.
Aggressive
Aggressive worriers are the pessimists. They are on the lookout for something to worry about. And if they cannot find anything at all to worry about then they are really worried because that means they are probably going to be blindsided by something. I call that the aggressive worrier. People like that have a problem with the Organizer. They just do not like the way He runs things, so they become consumed with self-pity, and they operate in a woe-is-me posture all the time.
If that is you, probably your problem is your treasure is on earth. You are worried because the things you love, the things you think you need to be happy, are all at risk all the time because they are earthly things. And you have a negative attitude toward providence because it seems like all the Organizer of this race does is constantly take away your treasure.
When that happens you know you are running for the Gatorade, and you have forgotten about the race. The solution for someone like that is to go back to verses 19-24 and empty out their earthly treasury and treasure up treasure in heaven. In other words - seek first the kingdom of God. Learn all about what is so glorious about the King and His kingdom, so that you begin to care only about that and nothing else.
The distracted worrier
The second category is the distracted worrier. He is not aggressively pessimistic; he just finds himself easily distracted from Christ by cares of this world. He is like Peter who looks away from Jesus at the wind and the waves. The stresses at work pile up, or he gets some bad news from the doctor, or an unexpected expense, or a relationship blows up, or some irritation arises – and he or she forgets all about the kingdom and suddenly the temporal issues of this world are giant mountains. They understand that God is their Father, and God can be trusted, and He is still on the throne, but when stresses bust into their lives, suddenly everything they know about why they do not need to worry just seems to disappear from their mind because they are so distracted by the stress of the moment.
The solution for that person is to ask, “Why am I here?” God gave you a life and a body – why? So you could crash and burn? No. You are facing this stressful trial because it is part of some eternal purposes God had in mind when He put you on planet Earth. And so all you have to do is seek first the kingdom of God. This problem that has come up – whatever part of it touches the kingdom, God has promised to richly supply absolutely everything you need to fulfill kingdom purposes. And the rest – any part of it that does not touch the kingdom - just simply does not matter - at all.
The littlefaith worrier
The third kind of worrier is the kind Jesus is talking to in verse 30 where He says O you of little faith. (That is actually all one word in the Greek.)
Matthew 6:30 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, littlefaiths?)
Little faith is when you are in the race, you are running to win, but you are worried there are not going to be enough drink stations to get you to the finish line. You just do not think you are going to have the resources you are going to need to handle what is coming – or what you are faced with right now.
If that is you, look at what God does with the birds and the flowers. Look, intensely and thoughtfully, at the things that God does. Turn your attention to Him. Find a way to make anxiety and stress a memory cue to turn your focus away from the wind and the waves back to your Father and His kingdom. And then realize that the purposes of His kingdom are far greater than the purposes of the birds or the flowers.
So, when you have an impossible situation at work – three times as much work as you could possibly get done and you are absolutely overwhelmed, how do you deal with that? You bless God for calling you into His service in His kingdom, you work as hard as you can at what is before you, and you assume that is all He is requiring of you. There is no way He is going to give you a kingdom task and not provide the resources you need to do it. His kingdom is way too important for that.
How do you handle it if people are exasperating you? Someone you work with, or your mom or dad, or your children, or someone here at church is just driving you crazy. Should you confront the person and try to resolve the problem? Sometimes yes, sometimes no - depending on the nature of the problem, but listen carefully – getting that person to stop doing what is bugging you is not the solution to your anxiety. Nor is the solution to quit your job or bail out on the relationship or to get away for a while. It may be wise in some cases to do those things, but they are not the solution to anxiety. The solution to the anxiety is to turn your gaze away from that person or situation and back onto the God, who is your Creator, who gave you your life and body for a reason, and who feeds 400 billion birds every day and makes the flowers beautiful beyond comprehension, and who is your Father who has promised to supply you with absolutely everything you need to do His will and fulfill His calling on your life.
“But that still leaves me with my problem. What if my problem is absolutely irresolvable?”
If the problem is irresolvable right now that means God’s calling on your life right now can be carried out just fine even with that particular problem unresolved. Your only concern in this race is to do what God requires. If something is impossible, then God is not requiring it and so you do not need to stress over it.
Well, Jesus is not finished. There is more that He wants to say to us about this problem of anxiety and worry, and so we will plan on picking this up again next week.
Benediction: 2 Corinthians 9:8-10 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written: "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." 10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
