Friday, October 16

Matthew 6:31-34 contains Jesus’ teaching about how we are to deal with worry and anxiety in our lives. In the final few verses in this section, Jesus drives the point home, right into the center of our hearts and He gives us profound insight into how we can be free from anxiety and worry.

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.  – Matthew 6:31-34

The key here is in this one little word – “first”.  Jesus tells us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. This is what C.S. Lewis called “The Principle of First Things”.

“To sacrifice the greater good for the less and then not to get the lesser good after all–that is the surprising folly common to mankind…Every preference of a small good to a great, or a partial good to a total good, involves the loss of the small or partial good for which the sacrifice was made. Apparently the world is made that way. You can’t get second things by putting them first; you can get second things only by putting first things first.” (Excerpt from the essay First and Second Things.)

Worry is almost always a lack of priority and perspective in our lives. If Jesus is truly at the center of our lives, we will not remain worried or anxious. When we find ourselves anxious and worried, we need to ask ourselves the question, what has first priority in our hearts? If you make your children, your spouse, your career or anything other than God your first priority, you are in a very vulnerable position spiritually. You cannot control the success of your children. I have known parents who did everything they could to bring their children up right, and yet had to face the pain of a child who rebelled and made terribly destructive choices. You cannot control your spouse (although many still try). I have known many people who thought that by their own efforts at being loving and kind, they could turn the hard heart of an unfaithful spouse. You cannot even control your own career. I have talked with more than a few men who worked hard in their careers and tried to conduct themselves with integrity, yet they were still passed over, or even “let go” when the company downsized. Children, spouses, and careers are all good things, but they are second things, not first things. Only Christ is meant to be our “First Thing”.

I remember reading a story years ago about Queen Elizabeth I. The Queen sent for a prominent businessman in London and asked him to go to a far corner of the British Empire to help establish a new trade center. The man replied that he was honored, but he had to refuse because his own business was struggling and he feared that to leave it would be to let it fail. The Queen looked at him and said, “My dear fellow, you mind my business, and I will mind yours.” This is essentially what Jesus is saying to us – You mind His business, and He will take care of the rest!

Jesus is telling us that the only way to be free from worry in our hearts is to continually work at keeping Him first above all else! 

Jeff Frazier