Worry. Stress. Anxiety.
These feelings seem to plague the year 2020. And just when things seem like they can't get worse… murder hornets.
Thankfully, Jesus can speak to us on this, "therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
(Matt. 6:34)
In His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6, Jesus assures us that life is more than food and clothing.
"Look 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?...Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Soloman in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"
Jesus asks us to consider that maybe the things we're worrying about aren't as important as they seem.
He goes so far as to say that worrying is useless! It reveals a lack of faith in us, the worriers, that we doubt our Father sees our needs and is capable of providing.
So then, what do we do when we start to worry?
Jesus instructs us to "seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness."
In this context, "FIRST" means: primary, priority, ultimate value; "SEEK" means: active, building, living.
Philippians 4:4-7 spells this out even further with step-by-step instructions for how to battle anxiety:
"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
[Click here
for a great mini-sermon on this passage.]
Instead of worrying, pray.
As Christians, we should be a people characterized by faith and trust in our good Father who loves to provide for His children.
We lift up our worry knowing that God will provide for us.
We only need trust Him.
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*Note: As Pastor Lance mentioned on Sunday, the anxiety that Jesus speaks to is common anxiety NOT clinical anxiety. For further clarification, there's a great article, here.