As we all know, we are living in some difficult, confusing times right now.  We are getting information at such a fast pace that people are so uncertain about the future.  What was true even just a week ago or a few days ago is no longer the best information or best procedures today.  Sometimes, things have even been changing hourly.

Many of us are now feeling so uncertain and completely out of control.  Our country, our city, and perhaps even our church is full of people who are full of worry and anxiety.  Now, of course this is a serious situation, and we should take it seriously.  We want to be rightly concerned.  We want to take every precaution that we can.  However, we want to guard against falling into a panic or hysteria or despair.

This situation makes me think of Jesus’s words in Matthew 6:25-33.  He said:

25“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?  26Look 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?  27And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  28And why are you anxious about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:  they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  30But 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?  31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  32For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  33But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

I want to point out three things we can learn about worry or anxiety based on what Jesus said here.

 

1. Worry/Anxiety is Unnecessary

In the passage above, Jesus tells us that one reason we shouldn’t worry is because we don’t need to.  He says that the Lord already knows our needs and already wants and plans to provide for them.  If God cares and provides for the basic needs of birds, flowers, and grass, can’t we be assured that he will provide for people—the centerpiece of creation—that part of creation that bears his image/likeness?  We do not need to worry about whether or not God will take care of and provide for people.  He will!

 

2. Worry/Anxiety is Ineffective

A second reason that we should not worry unnecessarily and to the point of despair is because worrying is ineffective—it doesn’t accomplish anything.  In verse 27 above, Jesus reminds us that worrying cannot change even the smallest detail of a difficult situation.  We can’t add even an hour to our life spans through anxiety.

 

3. Worry/Anxiety is Unbecoming

A third reason that we should not should not worry unnecessarily and to the point of despair is because worry or anxiety unbecoming of a Christian.  Believers should be people who take life seriously and take concerns/difficulties/problems seriously, but we absolutely should not be people who panic and get weighed down in worry or anxiety.  We can trust that God has been working since before the creation of the world and that he is working even now.  In Isaiah 46:3 and 4, God tells his people that he is the one who sustained them in the womb and carried them along since birth.  He then says that he will be the same in their old age and will bear them when they turn gray.  We can trust that God has been taking care of his people for centuries and that he is taking care of his people even now.

 

So, what should we do in this uncertain time?

  1. Take whatever wise actions you can while trusting that God is ultimately in control.
  2. Believe that whatever God says is true no matter what the circumstances around us might seem to say.
  3. Seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness and trust that all the other things we need will be added to us as well.
  4. Take our fears and concerns directly to God and rely on the Holy Spirit working through his word to assure us of his faithfulness.
  5. Rely on one another.