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? 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? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But 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? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:25-33
These words of Christ are arresting - and I suspect that if more time were spent heeding and less time were spent discussing them even we preachers might benefit.
As a young man I foolishly thought a time would come when the temptation to worry would wane. Naively I suspected that flourishing in a good job, possessing a stable family and enjoying relatively good health would usher me to a place where this temptation was no more. But, alas, as the years have passed I have learned otherwise. No one prepared me for coming to my 'sixties' and dealing with aging parents, concerns over health and challenges of a transitioning career - or, for that matter, even 'grown' children occupying my thoughts and raising my concern from time to time. So what happened? Well this - the 'natural' life - the one God spoke of in Genesis 3, after the fall - a life of work, produce, measure, comparison and... unfortunately worry.
Now I do 'know' better. I know that Jesus spoke as He did to instruct those listening to step away from their natural bent and choose otherwise. And I know, too, that the Apostle Paul's similar instruction to the Philippians (Philippians 4:6-7) is a command to the same followed by and made possible based upon a theology that 'in Christ' we are given power to do so (Phil. 3:1). But still... I fail, and do so 'miserably' at times.
Ahhhh... but when I do get it right! Yes, when times occur that I am able by God's grace to walk away from what is 'natural' and step up to the possible 'in Christ' it feels oh so good. When I do as my LORD instructed and consider the lilies of the field and the reasonableness and sanity of the truth that worry will not add one day to my life, nor money to my pocket, nor any thing close to peace of mind. When I consider His love for me - a love so great as to die for me on the cross, causing me, as Paul puts it, to 'rejoice in the LORD,' I am in a place where His blessings, already given, can be realized - and that is where I want to be.
So be gone all you devils and all of you demons and be quiet you 'old man of the flesh'. For I choose today to think on these things - my LORD, the truth, the honorable and the just. To remember the pure, the lovely, the commendable and the excellent. And to see those things most worthy of praise and thereby live in Him worry free - today, tomorrow, and much more than I'm 'naturally' won't, always!
Pastor Sam
