Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

Matthew 6:25 (KJV)

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, no about your body, what you will put on, is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Matthew 6:25 (ESV)

Anxiety is the critical term in our society today, and we seem to have a lot of it… or do we? Jesus was speaking this to his disciples, who were of the hard labor stock, fishermen. These guys didn’t have the modern ships with the huge nets and the powered motors to pull the nets in, they did everything by hand, and the nets were small, and the fish, were probably also small. Fish along with farming were the two ways to get food. Meat was scarce, and most people didn’t eat much.

So what is anxiety? It’s fear, fear of potential outcomes. When you don’t eat enough, you die. If you don’t have clothing and your naked in cold weather… you die. You don’t drink for a day or two, you die. There is a theme here, death. Basic anxiety, is fear of things that can kill us. It’s rational fear, but when we are anxious we are assuming much.

We are assuming God doesn’t provide for our daily needs, our daily bread. We assume that there is not enough food, water, and clothing. We would be wrong. Americans followed by the rest of the world have more food than we could ever have imagined, because God using men, have improved the ways we farm. Today the variety, quality, and quantity of food is almost obscene in America. Each town has multiple venues where food can be purchased, high quality food, with much nutritious content.

Even if we don’t have the money today to buy the food, there are organizations that make sure no one goes without food. Pantries, ministries, food banks, church kitchens, shelters all make sure no one goes without food. Should we be anxious about food, no, but many people are. They don’t trust that God will provide.

Even something as simple as water, which today is safe to drink straight from the faucet in most parts of the country, in Jesus day was hard to find. Water would have been harvested from pools and wells, pollution was a major problem since most human waste was simply discarded along the streets. Should I fear not having water?

Clothing in Jesus day was simple, normally a tunic, and a coat. Undergarments were probably unknown or very limited. To making clothing required hours and hours of labor spinning fibers, looming to make cloth, and construction by sewing. Today this is done without our even knowledge, we don’t ever think about the spinning or looming when buying a shirt at the store. Yet we are anxious about what we wear…

I think the main point is the question Jesus asks, Is life and the body just about eating, drinking or wearing clothing? Isn’t there more to life, and these are little things that we deal with each day, they should never be feared, and that fear should never control us.

You see Anxiety is our disposition, do we have trust that God will provide for us? Do we put our hope and trust on the creator of the universe or are we trusting ourselves. Of course if it was up to our meager abilities, we could never provide food from the ground or clothing from basic elements, but we need to trust that God will provide.

This is a multi part post on Anxiety, as the passage will lead us to talk more about this in the next few days. Most of the anxiety we have in our culture today is 1) unwarranted, 2) irrational… but that’s a topic for tomorrow.

Lord, help me to trust in your simple provisions and trust that you will provide for my every need. Take my anxiety about my life, the future and help me to place it into your capable hands. May I do all for your honor and glory that you alone will be praised.