Tuesday
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? - Matthew 6:25
I had a Bible professor in college who used love to use this little phrase, “whenever you see the word therefore, you should look to see what it is there for.” The point being that the word “therefore” should be an indicator to us that the author is building on some preceding statement or truth. I don’t know if you noticed it, but Jesus’ teaching on worry and anxiety appears to be built on what He has been saying just before this.
Matthew 6:24 - “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
Jesus tells us that you cannot serve two masters at once…therefore don’t worry. What? For some of us, the connection is not immediately apparent. Jesus is showing us that we all have a choice to make, we are going to have to serve someone or something, the only question is who or what? Bob Dylan wrote a song about this reality (yes that’s right, the singer songwriter) in his song, “Gotta Serve Somebody”.
You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls.
But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
It may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.
Now I am not suggesting Bob Dylan as reliable resource for theological truth, but the lyrics of this song are surprisingly Biblical. No matter who we are, no matter what our social or economic status, we all serve somebody. So, when Jesus tells us that we cannot serve tow masters, He is actually urging to choose to serve God and God alone. Serving God means He is in control, not us. It means that we no longer call the shots in our lives. It means that we surrender ourselves completely to His will. In other words…”God is your master, you serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, therefore don’t worry about your life!” On the other hand, if you are serving anything or anyone other than God, well then your life is going to be full of anxiety, it is inevitable.
Jeff Frazier
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2 comments:
Pastor Jeff,
Thank you so much for this essential reminder about putting first things first. The image that comes to my mind is a downward spiral. It starts with some problem and we probably need to pray and do some due diligence to address the problem, but recognize that there is much that is out of our control and that the outcome belongs to the Lord.
As a flight instructor, I used to demonstrate to students the “graveyard spiral”. Left to itself, an airplane will gradually begin to turn, start descending, and if the pilot simply panics and attempts to pull the nose up, the turn will tighten, the descent rate will increase, and if left unchecked, will spiral into the ground to a horrific crash. But, at any point, the pilot can choose to trust the aerodynamic principles and simply level the wings, zooming back up to proper altitude and resume normal flight.
If we allow worry to develop into a “graveyard spiral” to unchecked anxiousness, we demonstrate that we are trusting in ourselves and not in God. But, if we put first things first and pray (level the wings), trusting our future to our loving Father, we can exit the anxiousness spiral by working with due diligence on the 2nd things that the Lord puts in our minds to do. Like the sparrow, we work on the things the Lord leads us to do to address the concern, but we trust our lives to Him and rest in His love and sovereignty.
Phil 4:7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Wow, loved that visual. I hope it lasts through the day!
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