25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 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? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Quoting John MacArthur once again, from his sermon, Overcoming Financial Worry (Part 2)....
What is the Christian view of money and possessions? Where do we stand and what does the Bible teach? What is my perspective on both the luxuries and the necessities of life? Well the answer to the questions is given no where as aptly as its given right here by our own Lord Jesus Christ. For what you have in chapter 6 verses 19 to 34 is the greatest statement Jesus ever made on the view that we must have toward material things.
Now we've already studied verses 19 to 24 and that is what the Lord says about our view of luxury. Now we're looking at verse 25 to 34 in which He speaks of our view of necessity, so that the Lord touches both that which is beyond what we need and that which is what we need. And He gives us an affirmation of where our commitment is to be.
the heart of this passage is reiterated in three statements in verse 25 it says, "Therefore, I say unto you, Be not anxious." In verse 31 it says, "Therefore, be not anxious." Verse 34, "Therefore, be not anxious." The thrust then of the passage is built around those three statements, "Be not anxious." The first one in the Greek says, stop being anxious, the next two, don't start being anxious...
The heart of this matter to which Jesus speaks is the issue of materialism, worrying about our finances, worrying about our life, worrying about our earthly existence, worrying about whether we're going to have enough of the necessities of life to survive. The injunction the Lord gives three times in the passage is that we are not to worry, that such anxiety or such care or such fear‑or such worry or concern has absolutely no place in the life of a Christian.....
verse 25 begins with the word, "Therefore," and the word therefore is to take us backwards, and He gave us three principles you'll remember in verses 19 to 24. He said, first of all earthly treasures corrupt, earthly treasures corrupt. Then He said, yearning for earthly treasures blinds your spiritual vision, verses 22 and 23. Thirdly He said, you must make a choice between God and money. Now let me sum it up, listen to this, since earthly treasures corrupt you anyway, since earthly treasures tend to blind your spiritual vision, and since earthly treasures tend to draw you away from serving God therefore don't worry about those kinds of things...
The basics, your food, your drink, your clothes, don't worry, three times, stop worrying and don't start it, if you haven't begun yet. You say, well ah, that's easy for you to say, on what basis does He say that? Three reasons, three reasons not to worry, it is unnecessary because of your Father, it is uncharacteristic because of your faith, it is unwise because of your future....
First of all, we are not to worry about the basics of life because it is unnecessary since God is our Father....Have you forgotten who your Father is? It's so foolish. You know I can use my own children as an example. My children don't worry about where they're going to get their next meal, they don't worry about that, they don't worry about whether they're going to have clothes, a bed, something to drink, that never enters their mind, because they know enough about their father to know their father provides for them, they have absolutely no anxiety. And believe me I don't come close to being as faithful as God. And yet how often we fail to believe that God is going to provide for us, and we worry....
To me worry is a monumental sin. You see worry disbelieves Scripture. And you can go around all your life and say, I believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, I believe in the absolute authority of the Scripture, I believe in verbal plenary inspiration of every Word, and then just live your life worrying and you are saying one thing out of one side of your mouth and something else out of the other. Because why would you go around saying how much you believe the Bible and then worry whether God's going to fulfill what He says in it?
You see worry means that you are mastered by your circumstances and not the truth of God. Worry misunderstands your position as a child of God, worry is a devastating sin, worry is a killing, debilitating, self‑indulgent, possessive, anxiety, that says God can't care for me and I've got to do this thing myself. That's sin, that makes God a liar, it ignores His love, it ignores His power...
Basically then if you worry it's because you're not trusting your heavenly Father,, and if you don't trust your heavenly Father it's got to be because number one, you don't know Him well enough. Because if you knew Him you'd trust Him...
The second reason that worry is a sin, is because it is uncharacteristic due to our faith....Worry for us is needless because of God's bounty, it is senseless because of God's promise, it is useless because of our impotence to do anything anyway, and it is faithless because it is in effect putting us right in the category of an unbeliever....
The third reason not to worry it is unwise because of your future...Now providing for tomorrow is good, worrying about tomorrow is sin. Because God is the God of tomorrow just like He's the God of today..God gives you a glorious and blissful day today, live in the light of that day and fullness of joy of that day and take all the resources God supplies for that day and use them, don't push yourself into the future and forfeit the joy of today over some tomorrow that may never happen, because if you ever learn anything about this learn this one little statement, fear is a liar..it'll cause you to lose the joy of today....God only gives strength for one day at a time. God hasn't given me the grace for tomorrow yet, I don't get that till tomorrow....God gives us grace for the hour that we need that grace, but if you want to sit now and worry about that you're going to double your pain without any grace to deal with it....
"But do seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." In other words you get your thoughts on the divine level and God will take care of the physical.
Seek God's kingdom and seek His righteousness. When we set our hearts on things of eternal value, and when we pursue holiness, we can be confident that God our Father will provide our every need.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Matthew 7:1-6
1 comment:
I love this post! I am not a worrier, as I've said before, but I know a number of people who struggle constantly with worry and I feel very sad for them. It really does suck the joy out of today. In fact, I may send a link to a couple of people. :)
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