Anxiety

Matthew 6:31-34

(31) Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'

(32) For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

(33) But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

(34) "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Our society is very good at being anxious. In fact, we're so good at it that there is a huge pharmaceutical industry to help people deal with their anxiety. We get anxious about our jobs. We get anxious about our families. We get anxious about acquiring more stuff. We get anxious when we drive. We're a society on edge and we seem to think it needs to be that way.

From what I've seen the church is not very much different. Sometimes we get anxious about the things that the world gets anxious about. Other times we get what we consider to be righteous anxiety about things related to the kingdom of God. We worry about how we are going to pay the bills, or maybe how we are going to get enough volunteers to work some ministry. Sadly, we often don't look much different than the world.

As a church we're very good at the big sins that involve sex or substance abuse. However, I'm not sure that we are so good with this one. Jesus expressly tells us not to be anxious. Obviously we still need to work. We don't just sit back and expect God to miraculously work things out. He uses means to accomplish His will. However, we must not be anxious about how it's all going to work out.

There is an overused phrase today of, "It is what it is." That's something we need to remember as we let ourselves get worked up about things. Either things will work out or they won't. Our attitude about it speaks volumes about our faith. Do we trust that God has a good plan or do we think that He needs our help to keep things straight? When things don't work out the way we hoped do we think that God made a mistake?

Let's seek His kingdom and His righteousness first. Once we do that our priorities will be His priorities and then we will be able to rest in His providential goodness.