TEXT: MATTHEW 6: 25 – 34 – “Therefore I say to you, do not worry 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? Look at the birds of
the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly
Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by
worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So
why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they
grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all
his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of
the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He
not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Now we are looking at the topic of the Kingdom and Trusting. Trusting is the opposite of Worrying. We have discussed Prayer, Fasting, Treasures – and now trusting
Trust is the reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence. It is also, confident expectation of something; hope.
Worry is to torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts; to fret over things.
“I have a mountain of credit card debt”, one man told another. “I have lost my job. My car is being repossessed and our house is in foreclosure, but I am not worried about it”, exclaimed his friend. “No, I’ve hired a professional worrier. He does all my worrying for me, and that way I don’t have to think about it.” “That’s fantastic! How much does your professional worrier charge for his services?” “$50,000 a year”, he replied. “$50,000 a year? Where are you going to get that kind of money?” “I don’t know”, comes the reply. “That’s his worry.”
A story is told about a man who came face to face with the dangers
of worry:
Death was walking toward a city one morning and a man asked, "What are you
going to do?" "I’m going to take 100 people," Death replied. "That’s
horrible!" the man said. "That’s the way it is," Death said.
"That’s what I do." The man hurried to warn everyone he could about
Death’s plan. As evening fell, he met Death again. "You told me you were
going to take 100 people," the man said. "Why did 1,000 die?" "I
kept my word," Death responded. "I only took 100 people. Worry took
the others."
This interesting tale portrays so well the fact that half of all
the people in America’s hospital beds are constant worriers.
- ·
43% of all adults suffer health
effects due to worry and stress.
- ·
75% - 90% of all visits to primary
care physicians are stress-related complaints or disorders.
- ·
Worry has been linked to all the
leading causes of death including heart disease, cancer, lung ailments,
accidents, cirrhosis, and suicide.
- ·
An estimated 1 million workers are
absent on an average workday because of stress related complaints.
- ·
Stress is said to be responsible for
more than half of the 550 million workdays lost annually because of
absenteeism.
- ·
43% of all employee turnover is
related to job stress.
- · Mental distress can even lead to death.
Add to the list the mental fatigue of nights without sleep and days
without peace, and we get a glimpse of the havoc worry plays in destroying the
quality and quantity of life.
Let’s see what Jesus has to say about this. Tomorrow we will look
at the information in verse 25. Then we will follow with a look at the
illustration in verses 26-30. We will follow that with Jesus' Invitation in
verses 31-34. We will finish with a few concluding thoughts.
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