Matthew 6:31-34 "Do not be anxious then, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'With what shall we clothe ourselves?' "For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. "Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Matthew 6:27 "And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span?"
Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, 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 shall find rest for your souls. "For My yoke is easy, and My load is light."
Seems like Matthew records a few things Jesus had said about anxiety...
The first set of verses literally say, "DO NOT BE ANXIOUS"... yeah, ok - nice. But how? Well, look what we worry about or fear - not having enough of something. God knows what we need and He is Jehovah-Jireh - our Provider. The only pre-requisite is that we seek Him and His righteousness for our lives. Basically, He's saying, "Why worry about the what if's or how's or whatever's in the future. Stay in the present." And the future doesn't have to be years or days or months down the road, it could be an hour from now. He's saying LIVE IN THE PRESENT!
The second set of verses say that we can't usually fix what we're worrying or fearful or anxious about, so why give it more power over ourselves. The Serenity Prayer... God, grant me the SERENITY to ACCEPT THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE... We can ask God to change them, but He usually let's us know the things we can change, whether by conviction or that still, small voice, or sometimes He even does a little tough love to get us to see things. As in pulling the rug out from under us and saying, "oh, I'm sorry - you were standing on that, but it really needs washed." Well, maybe not in those terms ;)
The third set of verses for most of us is the hardest. Coming to Jesus and letting Him take our care and worries and exchanging them for His rest. Anxiety makes us hyper-vigilant and always on guard. No wonder we can't rest, we're always looking around for what needs to be done or what we haven't done or what we have done or what's going to happen if we don't do something.
Jesus says, 'Please, my little lambs, come to Me. Let me hold you in my arms and give you rest. I'm not going to put any demands on you that you can't handle - those you do well enough yourself. Let me restore you to child-like faith and trust in Me and My ability and power to take care of you. I won't let you go.'
Rest - Downhere
No comments:
Post a Comment