Why do we worry?

As I was studying to get ready for this week's message, I found myself in Matthew 6:25-34.

While I encourage you to read the actual Scripture, to paraphrase, it says this:

Don't worry about your life, what you will eat for drink. Look to the birds in the air. They do not sow nor reap, but your Heavenly Father feeds them. And why do you worry about clothing? the flowers of the field do not labor or spin yarn, but Solomon in all his splendor wasn't clothed like flowers. So, don't worry about what you will eat or drink or what you will wear. These are the things that they ungodly are obsessed with. Rather, seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these things will be added to you. Stop worrying about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have enough worries of its own.

If there is anything that I encounter regularly in every ministry that I am in, it is the concept of worry. Matthew gives us two examples that I am going to expand on just a little bit. He says to not worry about our life and then mentions food and drink. Keep in mind that food and drink are the examples. He says don't worry about your life. We live in a generation that is consumed with its own well-being. Biblical concepts like turning the other cheek, putting others before you, and living in humility have gone by the wayside. Instead we get on Facebook and brag that we decided to put ourselves first! We've removed unwanted people from our lives! We're living for US now! But those concepts are self-destructive. We're supposed to be Christ's ambassadors. We should be living a life that others take note of. When we put ourselves first, we're compromising our testimony. When we remove unwanted people from our lives, we're limiting our outreach. When we decide to live for "us" we cease living for Christ. The verses before our text today talk about the inability to serve two masters. We are called to seek first the Kingdom of God. We're not called to put ourselves first.

As a sidenote, I do want to clearly state that things like abuse are in a different category, in my opinion. We can't serve the Lord if we are destroyed physically or emotionally. But I also want to clearly state that there is a difference between abuse and getting our feelings hurt. Most of the time when our feelings get hurt it's because we are putting our wants above the wants and even the needs of others.

Anyway, the second thing Matthew tells us not to worry about is our clothing. In context, the passage prior says that we can't serve both God and money (or, 'gain.' as I prefer to call it). I don't believe he's chiding us for needing clothing any more than I think he's saying we don't need food or water. He's saying that we need to be careful not to be consumed by wanting "things." He warns us that this is the focus of the unGodly.

Now, I'm a where-the-rubber-meets-the-road kinda guy. So there are Biblical concepts that I struggle with. Here, Matthew nicely promises that God loves us more than the birds and the flowers and will, therefore, feed us and clothe us. But the fact is, that there have definitely been Christians who have have gone hungry and had nothing to wear. So, we need to parse this out and be honest about what this promise is about. He's not saying that we are promised these things: food, water, or prosperity here on Earth. He says to put the KINGDOM of God first. That means that we might have to decide to sacrifice things on Earth because seeking to be righteous on Earth is better than seeking gain on Earth.

So, why do we suffer? Honestly, I think it's a state of mind. Often we suffer because we think we deserve something. We did a good deed, so we deserve a treat. We forget that the wages of sin is death. Thankfully, by God's Mercy we don't get what we deserve. Matthew's advice? Seek what it means to be righteous, because nothing else matters.

~Steve