“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
Matthew 6:26-27
Now that we have had two weeks of teaching about faith, I feel like each of us have many questions to ask ourselves! We’ve been asked to consider what it is that God is calling us into – and reminded of the importance of obedience.
Even when God asks us to do what seems impossible, even when the Lord seems to be leading us in a direction much different than what we ever imagined for ourselves, there’s another question we can ask ourselves. “Am I going to be anxious about this?”
For many of us, asking whether or not we are going to be anxious sounds ridiculous. There are many times that anxiety creeps up on us and we don’t seem to have any control over the thoughts and fears that can consume our minds.
I find passages in Scripture like this one from Matthew 6 to be incredibly helpful.
Jesus gives a couple examples from nature, “the birds of the air” and “the lilies of the field”. Neither of which sow or reap, toil or spin and yet they are fed and clothed.
Although it is certainly easier said than done, choosing to reflect on the words of Jesus in moments of high anxiety can be super helpful… Our situations probably won’t change as quickly as we might like them to, but our perspective becomes realigned with the Kingdom of Heaven once more.
And it’s this Kingdom to which we are to turn our attention:
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:33-34)
Jesus knew the troubles we would face. He knew what it was like not to have a permanent place to live and to be uncertain of where his next meal was coming from… He knew what it was to fear abandonment and to expect disappointment from his friends. He also knew that worrying about any of those things would actually just rob us.
As we continue on our journey to becoming mature daughters and sons, we are continuing on a journey of choosing to put our trust in the Lord; choosing to have faith that he is who he says he is.
Lord, as we move forward into this day, we ask that our hearts would be turned to you and to your Kingdom above our own.
Thank you for the many, many lessons that you taught while you were on earth, Jesus!
Thank you that we still get to learn from those lessons today.
Strengthen our hearts and our minds to choose trust.
We long to believe what you speak over us but sometimes our doubts and fears, past experiences and hurts can get in the way.
We long to know you more and we ask that you would speak to us in each moment of worry.
We ask that each anxious moment we face would be transformed into a new memory of peace.
We love you and are so grateful for your Spirit that continues to be at work within us!
Amen.