Anxiety

Let’s face it. There are a myriad of reasons to be anxious these days. Family concerns, politics, finances, health problems, severe weather, taxing relationships, difficult decisions. On and on the list goes. So what are we to do? We have good reasons for fretting and stewing and worrying.

But does any of that help? No, it just compounds the problem. We can get sick just from worry. High blood pressure, stomach issues, and nervousness do nothing to alleviate the main concern. Hard work can help sometimes, but it can also wear us out. So what to do?

Here’s Jesus’s advice, from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6.

‘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.”

So here’s a question. Did Jesus ever worry? Sure, He was concerned about a lot of things. They troubled Him, and with good reason. But what did He do? He sometimes had to retreat to the desert to fast and pray.  He wept over the conditions He saw. He wrestled with His emotions in the Garden of Gethsemane before going to the cross. But He left there in peace, knowing the will of God.

Here’s what triggered my thinking today. A little verse from the Psalms popped out at me during my Bible reading. Psalm 94:19 says, “In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.”  Enough said?

“His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” from “Keep Walkin’”