“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?”
If you are a believer, a child of God, then the first thing Jesus want you to realize from Matt. 6: 25-26 is that if you are bound by the emotional stronghold of worry then you have forgotten who your Father is.
He says that our heavenly Father finds us more valuable than the birds and flowers. He introduces this section about worry by saying in verse 25, “that is why…….”, this implies that v.25 actually is a continuation of his comment in v. 24, “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.” Mammon in this case represent money and if money is your master you are going to find yourself worrying about it instead if serving and trusting God especially if you have it in short supply or if you don't have it at all. Generally speaking, mammon does not necessarily have to mean money, mammon means different things to different people, mammon can be anything in your life that you have elevated to the same level or even higher level than the level you placed God – it can be your possessions, it can be your spouse, your marriage, your children, your work, your career, or even your life. None of these things listed or even the ones not listed, better still, nothing should occupy the same level or higher level than God in your life. Let me put it this way, nothing should be of greater importance to you than God, when you have such things in your life then you will worry about them rather than serve or trust God.
Jesus put worry in perspective when He asked in v. 27, “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?”
In other to overcome worry, you need to be humble enough and to tell yourself the truth that you are human not superhuman, not God, so you have limitations- you cannot do all things, you cannot solve all problems, you cannot meet all needs and you certainly cannot be everything to everybody. God does not reward you for doing any of these things, rather, He rewards you for doing all that you can do – Mark 14: 8.
So a very simple principle to live a life of rest and peace is to do all that you can and live the rest for God to handle. Apostle Peter puts it this way, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” After all that you can do, the ones you cannot do are the ones you worry about, those are your worries, what do you do with them? He says, give them all to God –
He is the one that can do all things not you
He is the one that is all powerful not you
He is the one with whom nothing is impossible not you
He is the one that has the answer to all the questions of life not you
When you learn to do all you can and live the rest for God, including the outcome of even the one you have done then you will see that there is nothing to worry about. Provided of course that when you give them to God, you don't go back and pick them up again, neither do you keep checking up on God asking Him about what you have given to Him, that is only saying that you do not trust Him and that is an insult to God.
If you are a child of God, then you are not to behave the way unbelievers will behave when it comes to worry and anxiety. God is embarrassed and feels insulted when His children worry about anything and this impedes our ability to get anything from Him. Note this very carefully, you will not receive anything from God through worry, if anything, worry will block your access to God.
It may not be common in the city here, but on those occasion when you are in the village, you sometimes wake up to hear birds singing full of peace and joy because they are
not worried about anything. They have no bank accounts, no mutual funds, no career path, but they understand that the one who created them as provided for them all their needs, and so they go about daily singing, full of peace and joy. You also should try that, try to sing more, make it your goal daily not to worry, but to maintain a merry heart, the bible says, a merry heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit, which is a product of worry and anxiety saps a person’s strength (Prov. 17: 22).
God feeds the birds, yet they have no eternal value to Him, but you have so much value to God that He gave His only begotten Son to purchase your salvation and redemption from hell.
You may find yourself surrounded by all manner of needs and despite your prayers those needs have not been met, yet you see people around you whose needs are being met. Or maybe you are going through some challenge – marital challenge, financial challenge or some other challenge that is promoting worry and anxiety in your life. Understand that Jesus in this passage is talking about your heavenly Father, not some other persons who will promise and fail or are just incapable of helping you out despite the promises they may have made to you.
Understand that God is not like others, hand all your worries over to Him and leave it there. By so doing you will have positioned your self on the pathway to a stress free, worry free and care free life.
Do have a great day and remain blessed. Shalom
Prayer
O Lord I give you thanks for caring so much for me
In obedience to your word, I hand over my worries and anxiety to you Lord
(Mention all your worries to Him one after the other and leave Him to handle them)
I promise to trust you to resolve them for me
Thank you for answering my prayer
In Jesus name I pray. Amen
