Worry-Free Living, Part 1
“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? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” (Matthew 6:25–27)
I am so pleased that our Lord included the subject of worry in His message on the mountain. In fact, He devotes more space to this issue than any other. Those with keen eyes could have seen it coming. When He said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasure upon earth,” it was His way of saying, “Get your eyes off the horizontal!” And later when He warned, “You cannot serve God and mammon (money),” He was talking about living with divided objectives . . . having a “divided mind” (merimnao). So we shouldn’t be surprised that He jumps right into the whole world of the worrier, a person enslaved to earthly perspectives.
I want to suggest a new outline of Matthew 6. It may seem a little elementary at first, but you won’t forget it, guaranteed! You want things simple? Here’s simple!
Matthew 6:1–18
Warning against parading our acts of righteousness —Do not brag!
Matthew 6:19–24
Warning against falling into the trap of materialism—Do not sag!
Matthew 6:25–32
Warning against being preoccupied with wrong things—Do not worry!
Matthew 6:33–34
Warning against anticipating all of tomorrow’s concerns today—Do not hurry!
My family and I moved to Southern California in the summer of 1971 and lived there for twenty-three years. Do you know how long we heard doomsday warnings about “the big one”? Beginning in the summer of 1971. Am I saying we should not have been prepared? No, of course not. Never once did Jesus advocate an irresponsible or careless lifestyle. But worry? That is, live out our lives every day distracted by the dread of a possible quake that may reach 8.5 on the Richter scale? What good would that have done? Think of all the energy I would have expended and all the time I would have wasted in those twenty-three years. Furthermore, think what such hopeless dread would have done to my mind . . . and what a heavy toll it would have taken on my leadership. Worry is not only incompatible with faith, but it also siphons hope from our hearts . . . and hope is our main fuel for the future.
Taken from Simple Faith by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 1991, 2003 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com
