Start Thinking And Don’t Worry Series

And if I am sold out for God does that mean I need to not have so much stuff. I’ll have to start buying the no-name wheat bix and no-name clothes. My house will be functional but small and be sparsely furnished. What sort of house does a person who is sold out for God live in?

How am I going to look? How am I going to act? What are the expectations? What are the standards? How does a Christian who is sold out for Jesus look and act?

That is the issue here. And in response to that Jesus says multiple times “Do not worry”. When we hear it we may feel that these words of Jesus are ill-advised, or maybe even a bit hard to swallow.

Think about it this way. One of our members, Kylie, is an air hostess. Imagine her giving the talk about wearing your seatbelt and how to put on a life jacket and all those safety things which won’t make a scrap of difference if the plane falls out of the sky. Then at the end she says, “If there is anyone who is worried about flying you can put your hand up an I will come and talk with you.

And the dear old lady in seat 15C puts up her hand so Kylie walks down to her and says, “Are you worried about this flight dear?”.

“Yes, yes I am very worried.”

“WELL STOP IT. STOP RIGHT NOW! Pull yourself together. You’re just being ridiculous”.

Is that what Jesus is doing? Acting like some air-hostess Nazi who couldn’t care less about how you feel?

He isn’t, is He.

Rather, in these verse Jesus helps to work through the process of moving from a place of worry, to a place of peace.

The first part of the process involves giving us a definition of worry.

The definition is found in verse 34.

34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34)

Through these words Jesus is calling us to live life in such a way that we do not take the falsehoods of tomorrow and bring them into today.

Instead of focussing on what is actually happening now.

Instead of living in the moment and enjoying that moment.

Instead of addressing realities.

Instead of that we spend all this energy focussing on stuff that never actually happens. We want to try and control the uncontrollable. That is worry.

Which means we need to see worry for what it really is.

Isn’t worry really an effort on our part to try and play God?

The only way to control the uncontrollable is to be God. And none of us are.

Half the time we can’t even control our own kids.

Let’s be honest, we can’t even control ourselves.

Yet through all this worry we think to ourselves, “If only I try a little harder – I can make my little contribution – I can make my piece of the world a better place”.

Isn’t worry really nothing more than putting our trust in lies?

An epitaph on a grave stone in Britain says:-

“He had a lot of troubles in his life, most of which never happened”.

Basically, he believed all these lies that were happening in his mind and he worried himself to death. How often have we worried about what is going to happen in the future, only to find it never happens. The fears of the future are nothing more than liars.