Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: Anxiety

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.”

I remember, a long time ago, I was 18 or so and there was a girl that I kind of liked, but I had just begun to follow Jesus and learn more about what it meant to be a disciple.  I wanted to know what it looked like to navigate the dating scene as a follower of Jesus, so I asked the pastor of my church at the time.  I said to him, “I don’t know what to do exactly.  I like this girl.  But I don’t know how to go about this the right way.  What should I do?”  My pastor sensed that I was anxious about the whole thing.  He saw that I was still very young, and very new to the faith.  And I never forgot his counsel to me at that time.  He said, “You know, Jesus told us, if we seek his kingdom first and his righteousness, all these things will be added.”  Well, I’d never thought of a dating relationship as a thing, or that it could’ve been one of the things Jesus was talking about here in the SOTM.  But my pastor was exactly right!  I was worried about something that honestly wasn’t all that important at that point in my life.  What was more important was growing in my walk with the LORD.  And as I did that, my ability to discern what was right, who was right, and God’s provision would become clearer. 

That example is a pretty good one, because at the bottom floor of this discussion about anxiety is our faith in God.  Jesus said, “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?”  The way that Jesus talks about faith here is not the way we talk about faith sometimes.  Often when we talk about faith, we focus on the one doing the work of faith, that’s me.  I have faith.  I trust.  But Jesus is talking about faith with a focus on the Object of that faith, namely, our Heavenly Father.  It’s not necessarily about how much faith I have, putting the focus on me.  It’s about who you have faith in!  So long as your faith has the right Object, so long as the One you are putting your faith in is the right Person, the amount of faith that you have is kind of a moot point.  Jesus said, “If you have faith the size of a grain of mustard seed (very small seed) you can ask this mountain to uproot itself and be thrown into the sea and it will obey you.”  You see!?  It’s not so much about how much faith you have, it’s about who you’ve put your faith in. 

And Jesus is saying, when it comes to worrying about your life, if you put your faith in God, knowing that you have a new relationship with Him in Jesus, that is, that you have become his beloved child and he’s your Father, you can have relief from anxiety.

We can find relief from anxiety by having faith in God, but only when we understand this new relationship with him through Jesus. 

Let me try to explain.  Having a proper faith in God as your Father, is a lot like the faith of a three-year-old.  Toddlers can teach us a lot about faith, actually.  When my daughter was about three, she and I were walking and came to an intersection, and we had to cross the street.  Now, this was a busy street in a big city in Southeast Asia, so it was very crowded and very loud, lots of horns honking.  So, my daughter was anxious about crossing the street.  Fair enough; she deserved to be anxious!  I said to her, “Ok, let’s hold hands while we cross the street!”  And she looked up at me with this concerned look on her face and she says, “Can you hold me?”  And I said, “Sure thing!  Come on.”  She looked at that crowded street with a healthy sense of fear, knowing there was danger, but she was willing to cross it so long as she was with me because she trusted me.  And I’m not just anybody, I’m dad!  We’ve got this relationship thing on lock and matter of fact, she says, “I’ll feel a lot better if you’d just carry me at this point!” 

What can that teach us about our relationship with God?  A lot actually.  More than once or even twice Jesus taught about our need to have a childlike faith, to approach our Heavenly Father with the humility, and helplessness of a child, and to trust that, well, he knows a whole heck of a lot more than we do!  When we approach God that way, clinging to him like a three year old crossing a busy intersection, we’re so close to getting it right and the more we cling to him, I’m confident, the less our anxiety will be. 

Now, the last thing I’ll mention about this is that this kind of relationship with God wouldn’t be possible without Christ.  Apart from Christ, we would never hope to be in God’s grace to the point that we are called his sons and daughters.  Only because of Christ’s atonement for sin, and substitution for us on the cross, are we able to become God’s children.  But, being found in him, we can come boldly to God, boldly into his presence, and have the assurance of his affection and his attention.  That’s awesome! 

So, what are you anxious about these days?  Are you anxious about your finances?  Has it gotten harder to make ends meet?  Things are tighter than you’d like them to be?  “Fear not,” Jesus says, “your heavenly Father already knows what you need!”  You don’t have to be like the worldly people who scrounge and claw and worry themselves sick about these things.  God is your Father, he loves you and he knows your needs.  Are you anxious about your kids?  Well, did you know that your kids aren’t really yours.  You are a steward for a limited time of their life.  They’re a gift from God; a heritage from The Lord.  Pray and do your best.  But leave the impossible up to Him.  “Don’t be anxious, but pray.”  OK, but what if this is you, what if you’re anxious about nothing in particular.  You are anxious about many things and you don’t even know why! 

Here's a trick.  Take a deep breath and whatever it is you’re anxious about, say to yourself, “Ok, what if what I’m afraid of happening really did happen?  It probably won’t but what if it did, then what?”  And, you know what, even bad outcomes, the things making us nervous and afraid, even if they did happen, I think you’ll find they aren’t ultimately as terrible as we might have thought.  Ultimately, God is in control and he loves you.  So, with Jesus, we say, “Don’t be anxious about your life.  Don’t be anxious about tomorrow, sufficient for today is its own troubles.