The Counsel of Jesus for Anxiety (Matthew 6:25-34)
The Counsel of Jesus for Anxiety (Matthew 6:25-34)
The following is a highly redacted blog based on Sunday’s sermon on March 22, 2020
The date was September 13, 1541 – dangerous and chaotic times for a Protestant Reformer. After an exiled absence of three and a half long years from the city of Geneva, John Calvin resumed his pastorate by opening up the Scriptures – picking up in exactly the place he had left off in the book of Psalms – before being exiled.
For Calvin, it was bold statement that no matter the times, no matter the trials, no matter the challenging exile and persecution that he faced, the expositional preaching of the Word of God verse-by-verse would be the foundation of his ministry. Why? Calvin was convinced that people needed a verse-by-verse exposition of the Word of God for their faith, to face the trying times in which they lived, and for their own spiritual growth & building up in the gospel of Christ.
Since early December, our church has been journeying through a verse-by-verse exposition of the Sermon on the Mount. For our text, we picked up yesterday -- not in exactly the same place -- but in the same sermon of Jesus in Matthew 6:25-34.
Consider the following:
Anxiety disorders are now the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 18% of the population every year – 40 million adults.
Recent studies have shown that Anxiety disorders affect 25.1% of children between 13 and 18 years of age.
It is estimated that 15% of the adult US population will experience a depression at some point in their lifetime.
Depression is the leading cause of suicide about every 12 minutes; over 41,000 people every year commit suicide in the U.S. alone.
As Soren Kirkegaard put it, “No grand inquisitor has in readiness such terrible tortures as anxiety.” Max Lucado pinpoints accurately the challenge facing all of us during the coronavirus: “Feed your fears and your faith will starve. Feed your faith, and your fears will starve.” Friends, what are you feeding on during the coronavirus? Are you feeding your fears or are you feeding your faith?
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus commands us three times against anxiety:
Vs. 25: Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life.
Vs. 31: Therefore, do not be anxious.
Vs. 34: Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow.
In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus gives us practical counsel for overcoming anxiety; beginning at the end of the passage and working backwards through the passage, let’s delve into three ideas from the text:
1. Overcome worry by a relentlessly enjoying TODAY (vs. 34).
Vs. 34: Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
WORRY arises in your life when MENTALLY you are PARKED in the WRONG TIME ZONE.
Friends, imaginary burdens are the toughest burdens to carry. If you are trying to carry the imaginary and impossible burdens of tomorrow, that is a weight you can never bear. In fact, the energy and mental exertion that comes into your life when you try to carry tomorrow’s imaginary burdens only serve to diminish your strength for today. Anxiety often tries to carry “imaginary burdens” — burdens that do not yet exist because they have not yet arisen in time!
As George McDonald wrote: “No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today, that the weight is more than a man can bear.”
So it’s a paradox: you think your worry is helping yourself tomorrow, but what you are really doing is crushing yourself today. You may need to practice a mantra based on vs. 34: “Sufficient for the day…sufficient for the day…sufficient for the day” whenever your mind begins to worry or your heart begins to beat with anxiety.
2. Overcome worry by relentlessly pursing RIGHTEOUSNESS (vs. 31-33).
Worry arises in your life when you love the wrong things in the wrong order. It’s that simple. Human beings were designed by the Creator to prioritize certain pursuits as central to our lives.
So if a human being is running off the track designed by God – with priorities and pursuits that are out of whack – don’t you think that driving a train off a cliff or barreling a train into a forest would produce worry and anxiety for the conductor?
The pivotal question that Jesus is setting up for you to ponder is this: Are you primarily concerned about “seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness”? Or, you concerned primarily about secondary concerns in life?
Our lives get off track when we begin to say things like “I can have it all,” or “I can be double-minded in my pursuits”, as if we alone are capable of living a “super-human” life without boundaries or rightly ordered priorities and pursuits.
Worry arises in your life when you love the wrong things in the wrong order.
3. Overcome worry by relentlessly resting in God’s Sovereign Care (vs. 25-30).
Worry arises in your life is when you rely on the WRONG TYPE of CARE and CONTROL – namely YOURS. Worry is a control issue. Worry is a trust issue.
Worry comes down to this: “I am the only one that I trust.” That’s what you are saying to God when you worry. “God I don’t trust you, I must be in control.” “God, I don’t have any desire to release control to you.” Worry is a control issue and a trust issue; and, therefore, it’s a heart issue.
Jesus makes a classic rabbinic argument, arguing from the lesser (birds, lilies of the field) to the greater (to human beings made in the image of God, the crown of the creation). Jesus asks rhetorically: “Are you not of more value than they?” (vs. 26).
Can you ponder the lower parts of creation and learn to rest in God’s sovereign care over your life? God longs for you to live a worry-free, anxious-free life. Learn to rest in God’s sovereign care for your life and see the worry and anxiety begin to evaporate from your life.