Quit Worrying!

“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matthew 6:34)

Beginning in Matthew five and continuing through chapter seven, the Lord’s famous Sermon on the Mount is recorded. These verses teach us the rules for the Kingdom, the one-thousand year reign of King Jesus Christ on earth. These are not verses that deal specifically with the church, nor are they principles that teach salvation. These passages do show us how a Spirit-filled people will live during the Millennial Kingdom. Having said that, I think these verses should also describe how Spirit-filled Christians should live today. These principles go way beyond the bare minimum of Christian living and they surpass the minimum requirements of the Old Testament Law. God’s people should be second milers. They should be a people who are willing to go beyond just the what the law mandated in their relationships with God and men.

The last section in chapter 6 deals with worrying. Many of us struggle with anxiety and worry over things that we have little control over. We stress over what might or might not happen tomorrow. God says that we should be able to trust him with tomorrow and content ourselves with serving Him today. God gave us provision and protection today and He is well able to do the same tomorrow. I am not a doctor, but I am confident that worry and stress are contributing factors in many health problems. We do not have to live that way. Worry is often nothing more than a lack of faith. If our faith is strong, we know that our God will take care of us and guide our path, so we do not have to stress over life. The reason we worry and stress is because we have taken our lives into our own hands and we realize that we are not able to control all of the situations that will come our way. We know that we will not always make the right decisions. However if we put our lives and our families in the hand of God, we can be assured that God will always do right by us and He will take care of us.

These verses are not teaching, however, that we should not carefully prepare for our tomorrows. It is not wrong to make good decisions under His guidance regarding future planning. If you think about it, salvation itself is a decision that ensures a safe future. I realize that salvation entails much more than “fire insurance,” but many of us were saved because we were concerned about a future judgment. So it is not wrong to spend some time today considering tomorrow. However, when we get to the point where we are so anxious about tomorrow that we cannot serve Him effectively today, we have taken planning well beyond a healthy limit. It is certainly not wrong to put some money away for a rainy day or retirement, but if we get so consumed with hoarding our income today to the extent that we stop giving back to the Lord and we are  stingy with others, we have gone beyond mere planning.

The bottom line is that if we can trust God with our eternal destiny, cannot we trust Him with all of the little details that comprise living for Him in this world today. God took care of us yesterday, He is feeding us today, and He will continue to do so tomorrow. We can trust Him. Stop worrying.