It's hard to trust God and worry simultaneously

December 16, 2002

LifeWay Family Bible Series for Jan. 5

It's hard to trust God and worry simultaneously
___ Matthew 6:2534; 11:2830
___By Rick Willis
___First Baptist Church, Roscoe
___The Sermon on the Mount presents a desperately needed word for care-worn and restless people. Jesus is concerned that we live differently from the rest of the world. Instead of racing after created things we can rest in the Creator.
___Some cares will
___get you nowhere
___The Bible contrasts godly care with worldly anxiety (1 Corinthians 7:3234; 12:25). In Matthew 6:2526, Jesus used the basics of food and clothing to illustrate worldly anxiety. He painted a contrast between the "birds of the air" whose essential needs are provided by God, and those who let obsession with their own food and clothing make them impossible to satisfy.
___Verse 27 contains a translation challenge. Anyone who compares different English versions will discover it. Where the NIV reads, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" the KJV reads, "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?" Now, "taking thought" was just an old way of referring to anxiety, but there is quite a difference between a cubit and an hour or between life and stature.
___The challenge comes from the use of the word for "cubit," which means roughly the length of the forea

rm, with a word that can mean either "height" or "age."
___Is "cubit" used here as a literal height measurement, or is it used figuratively for lengthening a lifetime? I'm persuaded Jesus had in mind the typical difference in height between many of his Jewish listeners and the taller Roman soldiers of the occupation forces in Judea.
___Either way, Jesus was warning the crowd against futile worry over matters that just are not within our power to control. No man can worry himself taller. No one at all can worry into a longer life. In fact, worry can wreck a person's health and shorten a lifetime.
___Some cares will
___get you heartache
___It also is possible to be dominated by worries that lead to heartache because they draw us farther from God. This is the sobering warning of Matthew 6:2832.
___The world sets a hopeless agenda for worries that are impossible to relieve. Verse 32 pictures the "pagans," or those who don't know and delight in God, in a frantic race to get more things. It's a picture that shows up every day in America. Com-mercials, game shows, fashion shows and lotteries display the world's agenda of preoccupation with money and possessions--and looks.
___The worries the world tries to instill leave God out of the equation. They deny God is aware of our legitimate needs. They ignore God's care and God's power to take care of us. They show a lack of faith (6:30).
___Jesus promises that the God of grace and glory, who adorns nature with lavish beauty, will more than satisfy our needs. Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."
___Let God channel
___your cares
___Instead of wasting our worries on futile issues or insecure goals, we can let God set our agenda. Matthew 6:3334 promises God's agenda will channel our cares into rewarding and manageable life.
___"Seek first [God's] kingdom and his righteousness," Jesus said (6:33). This is surely another way of saying, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind," and "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37, 39).
___According to Matthew 25, a sign of seeking God's kingdom is the turning of selfish cares into active concern for others: "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink ... I needed clothes and you clothed me" (25:3536).
___We have the Lord's promise that if we are genuinely anxious to love God and to love our neighbor, taking it a day at a time, then God will give us the necessities of life.
___The right cares bring rest
___"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
___Matthew 11:2830 reiterates the Lord's teaching about worry in the Sermon on the Mount. The world offers a yoke that is heavy and tiring. Jesus offers a yoke that fits like a glove, and he bears the weight and gives the direction.
___Even though the Lord's invitation is to receive a yoke, not a bed, his promise is rest. It is the rest of security and God's loving care. It is the rest of a soul satisfied in loving God and doing his will. It also is the rest of a body clothed and fed with God's good gifts.
___A Christian proverb from Africa prays, "Lord Jesus, make my heart sit down," and he can truly do it.
___Questions for discussion
___ How can worry be harmful? How can worry be helpful?
___ What are some specific ways that you can put God's kingdom first?

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