“Worry”
SCRIPTURE
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who seek all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his[e] righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” —Matthew 6:25-34
DEVOTIONAL
Each time we read Scripture we proclaim, “This is the word of the Lord…” and our faithful response is “Thanks be to God.” I get that most of the time. The “Word of the Lord?” OK. But “Thanks be to God”? I’ll be honest, there are some passages in the Bible that make that hard to say. For me, this is one of those times. I worry.
I worry about my work – if I am being faithful. I worry about my wife when she travels for research in often not so safe places. I worry about our future. I worry about our daughters growing up in a pretty dangerous world. I worry about the economy, about rising gas prices, our relationship with the Middle East. I worry about the weather; global warming, ice caps, water supplies. I worry…
In the face of worry, Jesus tells the disciples (and us) to “look at the birds…Consider the lilies of the field…the grass.” At first, it sounds like a business plan for laziness, if not irresponsibility. But when Jesus asks them to “Consider the lilies…,” he’s telling them to do more than just smell the roses.
The Greek word translated as “consider,” means, “to observe in order to discover something.”1 In other words, to look with the intention that through this symbol of God’s provision, we may recognize that there is something sustaining the ground under our feet. Something we can’t easily see and often forget. Like the foundation of a building that holds up the four walls. In the Presbyterian Church, we call this “providence.” It’s the conviction that in God’s love and care for each one of us God is always holding us up, stabilizing our lives, carrying us along no matter what may happen to us. But providence is different from perspective.
Perspective allows us to see a bigger picture in relation to our lives. Providence speaks to that bigger picture in relation to God. Perspective makes us grateful. Providence makes us thankful. Thankful to a God whose care and provision is revealed through everything, even in something as simple as a lily or a bird or a blade of grass; a God from whom all blessings flow.
Thanks be to God that there is Scripture (even the parts we don’t like) that opens our eyes to what we often overlook. Thanks be to God that Christ shows us how to trust in a God we can’t always see. Thanks be to God that the God that provides for the birds and the lilies and the grass, provides for you and me as well. Thanks be to God that by those blessings all around us, we are shown exactly to whom we give thanks and praise.
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- What do you worry about?
- Where do you see God working around you, even through that worry?
- For what are you thankful? Not grateful, but thankful?
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“The antidote to worry is to seek first the Kingdom of God.” —Justo Gonzalez
PRAYER
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Amen.
1 Walter Bauer’s A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Second Edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ©1958, p. 414. And Max Zerwick and Mary Grosvenor’s, A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament. Rome: Biblical Institutes Press © 1981, p. 17-8.
The daily devotionals for the season of Lent are written by Rev. Dr. Kirk Hall, Associate Pastor of Formation at First Presbyterian Church from 2010-2013. He is currently a founding partner at The Metis Project, LLC. and lives with his wife and two girls in Salisbury, Connecticut.