He Cares for You #1

"For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”

Matthew 6:25

Worry is a big part of our lives, if we let it be. Every day provides ample opportunities for us to

worry. Anxiety, as I have learned it a bit (and please understand this is probably a major

oversimplification) is fretting over what is coming, future tense. Despair, discouragement,

perhaps depression, are often relative to fretting over what has been, past tense. Anxiety is a

nervous energy by which we prepare for things unseen as though they are certainly coming

true. (As a contrast, perhaps we might think of discouragement as a loss of energy as we

rehearse what has happened and relive it over and over.)

For this reason I say to you. What, exactly, does Jesus refer to when He gives a cause for not

worrying? Perhaps we should just skip over the next parts of that verse to get to what appears

to be the reason.

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Now, in the future lessons, we

will delve further into the deep relationship between needs and the Father’s care. Nevertheless,

most immediately in context is simply the words of Matthew 6:25. Life is more than food and the

body is more than clothing. Our concerns are often very surface level, aren’t they? Sometimes

I’m reminded of the phrase, “First world problems.” People can fret over anything, as simple and

silly as it may be, if they place too much emphasis on the felt need to acquire it. “I need my

coffee! I need my phone! I am worried I won’t get it!” Now, that sounds a bit shallow, but don’t

we worry about things that are often given too much weight? Where we create reliance, we

inevitably may foster worry.

Do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink. We can

easily convince our emotions and our hearts that the passing things of life are deep necessities

and worthy of great stress if we don’t have them on our terms. This is why we must always

evaluate things in light of what God has or has not chosen to give us for the day, and to

conclude that if we truly need it, He will not let us go without it. The Lord of all, who died on the

cross for our sins, is the One who said not to worry. Not just some friend who means well but

doesn’t have the ability to change things necessarily; this was Jesus, who holds all things

together by His power (Col. 1:17).

Jesus knows our wants and needs. It’s not that we shouldn’t ask God for things, but this verse is

giving us a call to put in check the things that we worry over. We need to evaluate the value we

have placed on the things we care about. Perhaps this alone would help reduce some of our

stress if we learned to put all things on the scales of Jesus Christ.

Be blessed.

Sam Stringer