Does He Worry? | AllWorship.com

Do you think this little guy worries?

Not in the least.

Earlier in the chapter from which today’s Scripture passage is taken, Jesus says, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Mat 6:26 NIV)

Wrens built a nest under a planter on our back deck. We put a little birdbath out for them–which they do not use. Our dogs, however, apparently think bird bath water tastes better than house water. Apologies; I digress. The point is that the birds never worry. They pay no rent, have plenty to eat, and are safe and watched over.

A deer herd lives here. They bed down at night in our field and watch us unafraid even when we are out with the dogs. Wild turkeys are here too. When my dad was alive, one of the turkeys “adopted” him and would follow him around like a puppy at his feet with no fear whatsoever.

How is it that animals can learn to trust us but we are unable to trust God? Why are we so afraid of Him, what He might do, or what He might allow? We talk of trusting God while we worry, are overcome with anxiety, and are fearful of what may happen.

Has God ever given us reason to be afraid of Him? No. So why are we so fearful? This is what I believe: We attribute some things to God that He does not do and we do not understand what He does. Therefore, we fear circumstances and are unable to trust His love for us.

So do not start worrying: ‘Where will my food come from? or my drink? or my clothes?’ (These are the things the pagans are always concerned about.) Your Father in heaven knows that you need all these things. Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things. (Mat 6:31-33 GNB)

Jesus admonishes us in today’s passage to not even entertain a thought of anxiety. I love the way the KJV expresses this: “Therefore take no thought, saying …” No thought. Wow! How can this be? It can be only by intention because emotions can cause us to take thought and say a lot we shouldn’t.

His words also say to me that entertaining anxiety is a decision, not a feeling. Sure, we feel anxiety; we cannot deny this. The feeling exists, but even though we feel it, we do not have to give in to it. We can resist it. We must!

Let’s continue with this. Jesus says, “Therefore take no thought, SAYING …” (emphasis, mine). Saying? To whom and how? What is He talking about? I believe He is referring to what we say to ourselves, our inner thoughts, and our “self-talk”. We say all kinds of things to ourselves that we would never utter out loud. This internal dialog, however, often determines how we see things (what we perceive as reality) and what we do in the reality we perceive.

So, does it matter what we feel? Of course, it does–but not in regard to today’s passage. Jesus gave us a command here, not a suggestion. He did not say, “Don’t feel afraid.” because that would be impossible. He said, straight up, “Don’t worry!”, because we CAN do that.

This is not a question of “Can you?” It is a question of “Will you?” When He says, “Don’t worry!”, you can do it if you will. I am not being flippant or implying that it will be easy. Quite the contrary: This may be the most difficult battle you have ever fought. Know, however, that you can if you will.

You will have to tell yourself, ‘saying’, as Jesus put it, that you will not worry. Your feelings will not like it. It may take saying it to yourself a thousand times before you feel any better. But you will feel better in time. This can happen. If you will. And you can.