Matthew 6:25-34
Fear, anxiety, and worry take up enormous amounts of mental energy. We can feel it in our body, and it impacts our everyday lives. On a scale, it can be petty and trivial or paralyzing and tragic. Either way, anxiety is something everyone deals with on some level because it’s part of the human condition. We’re regularly consumed with the things that concern us.
Over the years, I’ve come to the conviction that anxiety, fear, and worry do three things in our hearts, often unconsciously.
First, worry maximizes and multiplies the problems of our lives.
Second, it minimizes the power, presence, and provision of the Father.
Third, it convinces us that we are practically on our own to manage our lives in our own wisdom and strength. Perhaps God is in control of my life but he doesn’t care. Perhaps he cares but is not in control. Either way, I’m on my own.
Or so the voice of worry says.
Into this world of our anxiety, Jesus speaks two words that initially may seem dismissive or even rude to some. First, he commands our hearts three times, “do not be anxious.” Don’t hear a disgusted and dismissive voice saying, “c’mon, don’t be anxious!” Rather, hear a caring, inviting, and yet gently challenging voice that says, “I know you, and I know your heart. I know your life and the burdens you carry. I care for you and about you. The Father and I know exactly, precisely, clearly, what makes your heart anxious and I’m reminding you that there is absolutely no reason to be.”
Next, he calls his disciples “you of little faith.” Again, it’s tempting to hear sarcasm and shame in Jesus’ voice, mocking his own for their weak faith. However, Jesus is actually giving them an explanation and an invitation. The explanation is simply this- their hearts don’t yet know the Father the way they should and soon will; the invitation is this- for them to get to know the Father so that their hearts and ours can rest.
Jesus, who came to reveal the Father (John 1:18) wants us to consider three things to deal with our worry and fear:
First, consider how the Father cares for creation. If he cares for birds and beautifies fields with grass and flowers, he cares even more for you. Perhaps today Jesus would encourage you to sit on a park bench and listen to the sermon that the songbirds are singing to you about the Father’s care for them.
Second, consider the Father’s wise control over all things. One author has said that worry is like a rocking chair, it doesn’t get us anywhere but it gives us something to do. We should reflect on our inability to control our world around us and then rely on the Father’s infinite wisdom and power to govern all things according to his perfect plan.
Third, consider the goodness of the Father’s provision. Jesus says it is the Father’s delight, joy, and “good pleasure” to give his people the kingdom. An aspect of the kingdom is that God restores what is broken in our lives and one of the things this kingdom restores to our hearts is a robust view of the radically generous heart of the Father.
John Prine is one of my favorite songwriters. In one of his songs, “A Crooked Piece of Time,” the lyrics begin with “Things got rough, things got tough, things got harder than hard.”
Fear says,
“things will get tough, things will get rough, things will get harder than hard….and I will be alone to deal with it.”
Faith says,
“Things might get rough, things might get tough, things might get harder than hard………but my Father is in control, and he cares infinitely for me.”
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Romans 8:32
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