Why Worry?

You know, people fall in love, have children, celebrate birthdays, take trips and sit on the porch on summer evenings, while listening to crickets. But inevitably, and to everyone, problems do come. Relationships flounder, jobs are lost, money gets tight, kids rebel, and through it all, even in the midst of friends and family, loneliness and worry can seem like all there is.

When life turns tough, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Resources that once sustained you such as: relationships, self-confidence, work, and material possessions appear powerless. You long for an instant fix, something to take your problems and worries away. You need solutions. A solution not necessarily to give you that instant fix, for unfortunately, one does not really exist ¨C but to lay out practical steps you can follow. God in you is the aim towards the resolution of all of your worries, not just some, but all. It is God in you who can fill you with love, which will relax you, and it is all through His wonderful grace.

Let's read His Word, please stand and open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6. Let's begin by looking at verses 25 - 34.

25 This is why I tell you: [Therefore.] ...

When you see the word therefore or this is why, you must ask, "What is it there for?" The overarching context for this "therefore" is based upon the entirety of the sermon, but its immediate context begins in verse 19 in regards to the heart and the listener's treasure. But let's finish reading our passage.

25 This is why I tell you: [Therefore.] Do not 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? 26 Look at the birds of the sky: They don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you worth more than they? 27 Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don't labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! 30 If that's how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't He do much more for you, you of little faith? 31 So don't worry, saying, "What will we eat?" or "What will we drink?" or "What will we wear?" 32 For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. 34 Therefore don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

In our passage we see that Matthew is writing the words of Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount. This passage examines a cure for anxiety or worry. Jesus takes a look at the problems that the Jews were experiencing. Their concerns were for basic needs and getting ahead in life, which in this context was centered on their treasure, money. The root of the hearer's problems was that their hearts were in the wrong place.

Jesus initially questions their worry. He asks them a series of rhetorical question. "Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" Jesus follows this up by pointing out the provision that God gives even to the birds. He feeds them; he provides for them. The birds are not able to harvest. Jesus then asks them another rhetorical question and that is, "Are you not worth more than they?" Mankind is the crown of God's creation; of course we are worth more than the birds. We have the ability to love Him back. We have the ability to speak with Him. We are His image.

Jesus then looks at a different worry - their self worth. Jesus again uses a rhetorical question, "Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying?" and, "Why do you worry about clothes?" Jesus uses the word picture of a wildflower in the field and Solomon to answer. "I tell you not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned as one of these wildflowers. If that is how God clothes the field, which is here today and gone tomorrow, will God not do much more for you "you of little faith?" Jesus rent their hearts. He moved them emotionally into a realization that it is God who provides.

Simply put, these words that Jesus uses, "little faith" was to reprove his hearers in order to move them forward in their belief and faith. There were a number of times Jesus chided his listeners and his disciples, for example, the storm on the Sea of Galilee when He came walking on the water. The reason Jesus used this term was to get the people to think.