It has been said that worry is nothing more than misused imagination. That it’s true worship flipped inside out. The ultimate solution to worry is learning to trust your heavenly Father’s care. I’d bet you can think of one area in your life today in which anxiety has taken over to some extent. To this anxiety, I would ask if you’ve spoken and believed God’s promises for your life over what you see, trusting that He cares for you enough to make it work for your good. The musician Curtis Chapman said it best: “Worry doesn’t stop tomorrow’s pain, it only steals today’s peace”, When one of his three adopted daughters from China died. I will encourage you to surrender all your what-ifs to God, who knows and will meet your needs, wants, and sometimes desires. This, my friends, is the GOoDLife in its best form!
Jesus asked one of the most powerful questions I’ve ever heard: ” Aren’t you of more value?” The passage we look at today contrasts several things. Jesus compares God’s children to birds and flowers. He wants to make an essential point that God cares about the birds and the flowers, but not more than the man or woman He created in His image. He explains that birds or flowers don’t struggle or exert themselves for food or to be clothed, yet God takes care of them.
In the same way, Light vs darkness, Treasures in heaven vs. Treasures on earth, and God vs Money are contrasted in this context we get to see the beauty in placing our faith in our value or worth to God over the worry that comes from the cares of this life like what we will eat, drink or wear. Notice that we only worry about things related to the body: food and drink relate to things we place in our body, and clothing refers to stuff we put on our body. If we look closely enough, Jesus is saying we should place greater weight on the value of the body and the life given to it by God. The requirement Jesus gives in the place of worry is to seek first the kingdom of God, and all its righteousness, knowing that whatever you need for your body will be added to you. It’s about placing priorities in proper order. Worry often comes from forgetting who we are and whose we are.
Worry simply cannot work, ever. If you and I worry, it doesn’t make us taller or add an extra day to our lives; in fact, it has been proven scientifically to do the opposite. Worry is both unproductive and unbelieving. We should expose the futility of anxiety; far too many people wear it as a badge. The bible speaks of the fact that today has enough trouble of its own. While most of the things we worry about we cannot change anyway, a statistic from Penn State University says 8% of what we worry about ever happens. This proves that worry is a waste of time and a perfectly healthy imagination.
Those far from God have a reason to worry. I can understand why they’re constantly stressed, but not those who know their heavenly Father and His great love. I cannot understand why anyone would profess to have a Father who owns everything and loves them, yet struggle to live in joy, peace, and purpose. We don’t have to look too far to see that the birds and flowers are sustained. God’s care for us is personal, not generic. This is about holy surrender into the hands of a God who is not an absentee landlord or a deadbeat dad. He truly loves and cares for us individually, and He desires us to seek for Him as we would for any other thing we find of great value.
Here are some thoughts to take away and points for ponder:
Kingdom citizens live free of struggle and worry, because they know in whom they have “believed.”
Kingdom citizens know their value and worth doesn’t come from performance but is founded on the fact that they are sons and daughters of God.
Jesus wasn’t just giving a pep talk here; He was offering us keys to a life of true freedom in Him.
Scripture references:
Matthew 6: 25-31 & Luke 12: 25-28
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