What is it that keeps you up at night? What is stealing your time and your energy from being all that you can be?

 

Matthew 6:34

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (NIV) 

 

• Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink (V. 25)
• Look at the birds – the Father feeds them (V. 26)
• Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life (V. 27)
• The lilies of the field – God clothes the grass of the field (Vv. 29-30)
• We aren’t to worry about our daily needs
• We aren’t to worry about tomorrow

APPLICATION:

• Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness (V. 33)
• Then He will take care of your needs.
• Stop worrying – it does nothing for you and solves nothing
• Go to Him – seek His face!
• Focus on today! 

The young man said, “I’m here to help you, ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the car where it’s warm? By the way, my name is Bryan.” The elderly woman breathed a sigh of relief. There was no way she could have changed her own tire. Bryan had the spare tire on and the jack down in less than ten minutes. As he was tightening the lug nuts, the woman rolled down her window and began to talk to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just passing through. She couldn’t thank him enough for coming to her aid. Bryan just smiled as he closed her trunk. She asked him how much she owed him. Any price would have been all right with her. She’d already imagined some of the awful things that might have happened if Bryan hadn’t stopped. Bryan never thought twice about asking for money, even though he could have used some financial help. Changing a tire was not a job to him; it was a matter of helping someone in need. He told the woman that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance they needed. “And when you do,” he added, “think of me.” Bryan waited until the woman started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed home. A few miles down the road the woman saw a small diner. Though the place didn’t look like much, she went in to grab a bite to eat and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home. Her waitress brought a clean towel for the woman to dry her wet hair. She had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet all day couldn’t erase. The woman noticed that the waitress was pregnant. She wondered how someone who seemingly had so little could be so generous and kind to a stranger. Then the woman remembered Bryan. After she finished her meal, she gave the waitress a $100 bill. While the waitress went to get change, the woman slipped quietly out the door. When the waitress came back to the table, she noticed something written on a napkin. When she picked it up to read it, she noticed four $100 bills that had been left underneath it. There were tears in the waitress’s eyes when she read what the woman had written: “You don’t owe me anything. I’ve been there, too. Somebody nice helped me out, the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do: don’t let this chain of love end with you.” That night when the waitress got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about the money and what the woman had written. How could the woman have known how much she and her husband needed that money? With the baby due in a month, she knew how worried her husband was. As he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered softly, “Everything’s going to be all right. I love you, Bryan.”

 

I don’t know about you, but I am a professional worrier. I come by it naturally. I come from a family of worriers and anxiety ridden people. This isn’t an excuse by any means, just a fact. By the age of sixteen I was already on my way to being a professional worrier. I remember getting sick before long trips, anxiety before taking tests, and having all kinds of stomach issues. I went to the doctor during my sophomore year and discovered that I had an ulcer! I tried all kinds of over the counter remedies, and different ways to distract myself from worry, but none of them had long lasting results. It wasn’t until I had been a Christian for many years that I discovered the true remedy for worry – prayer!

 

Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Frank Gaebelein in his commentary says, “believers should be prayerful instead of anxious. The verb ‘merimnate’ can mean “to be concerned about” in a proper Christian sense (and is so used by Paul in 2:20), but here the meaning is clearly that of anxiety, fretfulness, or undue concern. Paul is not calling for apathy or inaction for as we make plans in the light of our circumstances, it is our Christian privilege to do so in full trust that our Father hears our prayers for what we need. The answer to anxiety is prayer.” The opposite of worry is trust, and that means to pray to Him for our concerns and our needs.

 

Another author said it this way, “Worrying shows that one has “little faith” in what God can do. As a disciple cares each day for the things God has trusted to him, God, his heavenly Father (6:26, 32), cares for his daily needs.” [The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 33)]

 

Jesus said that worry is sinful. We may try to dignify worry by calling it by some other name, but the results are still the same. Instead of solving the problem or making us live longer, anxiety only steals from us time and energy. That reminds me of a saying, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” That is exactly what worry is!

 

If God can feed the birds and manage fields upon fields of grass and lilies, then He most certainly can take care of our needs – no matter how large they may seem! Will you trust Him today? Will you identify what it is that you are anxious about, and lay them at His feet?

 

Ask God to show you what it is that you are anxious about and mentally lay them at His feet. Then ten minutes later, lay them back down again.

 

If you would like help in growing in your faith, or if you would like to know how to have faith in Him, then please contact us at (928)636-2949 or email me at pastorguy@cvgrace.com