Lord, I Have Some Concerns



Matthew 6:25-34
25“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
28And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,
29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
33But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Have you ever noticed that no one had to teach you how to worry? We just seem to pick it up along the way. It’s that persistent internal nagging that causes us to give mental energy to what might happen to negatively impact our lives. We all know how to worry. Now I will admit that there are some who are world class worriers. Everything gives them cause to worry. And I can say I don’t really fall into that category (very often). I don’t have the mental capacity to focus on any one thing for that long. But I too find the middle of the night a good time to be awake in order to perseverate about something over which I have no control. And there it is – control.

Jesus discusses worry with His disciples in the midst of a conversation about trust. In the passage from yesterday, He admonishes those who would not exercise generosity for fear they will not have enough for themselves. Today, the topic is much the same, but goes more toward the mental processes that go along with wondering if you will be okay. That is what we call worry. And His Words are fairly simple – don’t do it. After that brief admonition, He explains how futile worry is for us for we are powerless. We don’t have the control over life that we would like to have.

On the positive side, the capacity to think about one thing for a protracted amount of time points to a better and more valuable skill. If you know how to worry (and we’ve established that we at least all know how) then you know how to meditate. Meditation is the positive side to those mental gymnastics called worry. We know that God speaks to us through His Word. What if you were to “worry” about a passage of Scripture rather than things over which you are powerless? Your day would improve dramatically. It’s like yesterday’s reading. We all know this already. But rereading these words of Jesus remind us that there is a better way – His Way. So today, "worry" about these words, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life. . ."

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