Last updated on January 19, 2023
Recently I attended a church service in which the preacher was discussing Jesus’s command not to worry in Matthew chapter 6. As a woman with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, this passage is a bit of a hard one for me to swallow. If Christ commands it, but my brain chemistry is just gonna do what it’s gonna do, whether I give it permission or not, how am I supposed to NOT worry?
Case-in-point: If you’ve been a follower of the blog, you may have noticed that there hasn’t been a new post since August (it’s now December). Well, while I was working up this very post, my twelve-year-old fell fifteen feet from a bouldering wall during training and snapped his humerus (the thick, short bone of the upper arm). Needless to say, the scream was terrifying, followed by a greuling experience at the children’s hospital getting it into an immobilizing brace. Yes, I worried. And I cried as he screamed at the top of his lungs from the other side of the sound-blocking glass, calling out for me to tell them to stop when he was having his own anxiety attack at the prospect of them moving the bone.
And every time I opened up this post afterward to pick up where I left off, I relived the moment. I get palpitations and tears just thinking about it right now.
So here we are in December and I’m finally getting over it enough to press on through and get back to sharing with you what God’s been sharing with me.
Back to the passage.
Therefore I tell you: Don’t 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?
Consider 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? Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying?
And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. 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?
So don’t worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:25-34 CSB
In this passage, Jesus addresses the primary concerns of the day (food, drink. clothing), and asks his followers to consider whether those worries are more important than life. Then he reminds them how God cares for the world around them, which doesn’t toil and strive and fret over what it needs. The birds get the food they need. The fields of oh-so-temporary grass get beautiful adornments. The lives of those to whom Jesus is speaking are even more precious to God, and he knows what they need. Those without God spend their efforts on providing these things for themselves. But these followers have God caring for them, always.
Jesus tells them they are first to embrace the abundant life found when we seek first God’s kingdom and its ways, as exemplified by Jesus, and live forward into that righteousness.
In layman’s terms, I think God is telling us here to enjoy our lives, pursuing that which satisfies rather than worrying about or striving for those things which He is already taking care of for us. God desires to give good things to His people, and that includes an abundant, full and satisfying life.
‘Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him. ‘
Matthew 7:9-11 CSB
So, the challenge today is to turn from our worry about the things we think we need to be striving for or fretting about and look toward the things in life that God intends for us to enjoy. He made each of us as unique individuals, and he delights in us as such. He has also given things into our lives that are designed uniquely for each of us to delight in because he knows us individually and knows what joy our unique hearts need.
When we find ourselves worrying, we are forgetting the love of our Father. Our Creator. Our Provider. And we are missing the beautiful abundance of the life that he gives us and enriches every single day.
Great church-speak, Angela. Abundant life. Whatever. You’re not the one who just lost your home. You’re not the one who always seems to get used and discarded by other people. You’re not the one who lost her job…again. You’re not the one battling the inner conversations about your own self worth. That’s not very abundant.
‘ “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness! ‘
Matthew 6:22-23
Dear friend. I know from experience that abundance can be found even in your darkest moments. Seek first the kingdom of God. Where is God working? Where are good things happening? What is he doing? Where is his light shining in your darkness? I promise you, His light is there. LOOK for it, even if all you can see right now is a tiny little matchstick-size flame. Chase that flame and seek his righteousness.
When you seek Him with your whole heart (or as much of your heart as you can at the moment) you will find him. You will learn to see the gifts he gives you. When you see them, you will know he is taking the forethought, effort, and tender care out of his love to give you something special for even your darkest days. It is then you can begin to leave your worry behind.
Why? Because when you look everyday for just one thing that he’s given you for your joy, you will learn to find more joy, and more gifts from his hand, and more love for him, and more understanding of your utmost worth to him. You will grow to see how many things he takes care of for you.
Then when the next trauma comes along, because it will in this sin riddled world, you will know the One who never leaves or forsakes you. You will know that he is able to do far more abundantly than anything you can even ask or think.
‘Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us — to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.’
Ephesians 3:20-21
Because you’ll have seen him clothe you like the lilies of the field. You’ll have lived through him feeding you when there was no way to put food on the table. He’ll have been your comforter when there were no arms to comfort you in your affliction.
Worry destroys your life. All parts of it. It even destroys your mind, and it undermines your faith and hardens you to love. Don’t go that way. Seek first his kingdom and righteousness and abundant life. Life is more that food and clothing, or whatever it is that torments your heart right now.
So begin today. When you find yourself worrying or even just thinking too often about some unanswered question about the future, stop, turn, and look for the good thing God has put in your life to bring you joy and show you he still loves you, provides for you, and never forsakes you.
‘Keep your life free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you or abandon you. Therefore, we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? ‘
Hebrews 13:5-6
Live abundantly, Friend.
“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. ‘
John 14:1
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