MATTHEW 6:25-34 – “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. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

THEME OF THE DAY. CONFRONTING OUR ANXIETIES. It is something we all deal with in this life. Some battle it more than others, but no one escapes its grip. It is anxiety; that pit in the stomach that quickly races upwards to our thinking and causes us all kinds of emotional, physical, and spiritual upheaval in our lives. And it can be very intense. In the battle against anxiety, it has been likened to swatting flies on a hot summer day at a picnic – relief is only for a moment, a short moment. When it comes to doing battle against this beast, today’s scripture is extremely helpful and describes the starting point if we are to achieve consistent victory. What we are reading is the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher who ever lived; Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

In His Sermon, our Lord Jesus went straight to the point about anxiety. I have bolded the three times Jesus mentions it so it will stand out for us. He places such emphasis on this issue because He knows we are a people prone to live in anxious moments with anxious lives. We fret over our children, marriages, jobs, financial security, safety, daily needs . . . and the list goes on and on. But pay particular attention in how Jesus address the way we are to fight anxiety. He does so with a command. He commands us “do not be anxious” three times in ten verses. I must admit the struggle with this. It is one thing to obey the command “Go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). That is something we can do. It is an external action. It is another thing to obey a command that deals with an emotion with us that is powerful, often paralyzing, and difficult – “do not be anxious.” Why would Jesus address our responsibility in dealing with anxiety as a command to obey, not a promise to hold or simply waiting upon Him to remove it? Here are a couple of things to consider.

First, as His children, we live by faith, not feelings. We live out obedient lives pleasing to God by decisive acts of the will, not based on how we feel. I know Christians whose walks with the Lord are heavily bent toward feelings and emotions. They obey as the winds of emotion and feeling come. If Sunday comes and they feel good, church is a no brainer. However, let some bad emotions creep in and it is easy to recluse and stay away. That is not living by faith, but by feelings. God wants to build His children to be stable and grounded deep in the faith. And that only comes from “feeling-less” obedience to known commands.

Another thing about the command “do not be anxious” is that we must learn the truth that God never gives His children a command to obey without the strength to obey it. This is an important lesson. We don’t wait to obey. We act on the command regardless of feelings, believing God will give the strength to obey as we obey. Again, this is faith-based living. And it will lead to great joy and overcoming sin, even anxiety, as we put our obedience into practice and watch God strengthen us, even deliver us from anxiety-riddled living, through willful and purposeful obedience.

PRAYER: “Father, I believe, help my unbelief.”

QUOTE: “Jesus commands us not to be anxious and when He gives a command, He also give the strength to obey it”