Matthew 6: 34
Do Not Be Anxious

In any case, there is here a realistic and frank facing of the issue in regard to life's most basic needs and presumably is applicable to all other causes of anxiety.

But before I discuss the Lord's words on anxiety, let me pause to take a survey.  I am not asking for an outward response on this, but let me ask you individually.   What is the thing you are most anxious about in your life?  If you say, "I'm not anxious!" and I see the muscles of your face tighten up and your fists tighten, then I know that either you aren't telling the truth, or else you don't know what anxiety is.  But for those of us who freely admit to being human, I want you to think right now about -- say -- your three highest priorities in anxiety.  That is, the three things you are most often anxious about.  At least one of them is likely to be about finances or related matters.  Another is likely to be about relationships to other people.  Still another might be about the future: your future, your career. But those are just my guess.  Please pick out three of your "top priority" anxieties -- the things you are most likely to be anxious about -- and hold them in the corner of your mind for the next 30 minutes. 

Now, our Lord, gives a command to his hearers, and presumably to us: "Do not be anxious!"  He states it up in v.25 and then repeats it in his summary down in v. 34.  Since all of us, a minute ago, were surely able to personally identify anxiety, I suppose we either are all being disobedient, or else, maybe the Lord is speaking of a common difficulty that we all have and is talking about dealing with our anxiety in a godly way.  My sermon this morning on, yet another one, in a series, on "the sayings of our Lord," revolves about the reason that Jesus gives for not being anxious and about what place anxiety rightfully might have in our lives or should not have.

I. NOTICE, THEN, THE REASONS THAT JESUS G IVES FOR OUR NOT BEING ANXIOUS; THAT IS, FACTORS THAT SHOULD DISPEL OUR ANXIETY.

1. He says, first of all, that we shouldn't be anxious, because in most cases anxiety has to do with things that are not worthy of our discomfort. "v.25"  Perhaps some of what the Lord means here is what the self-help books on worry tell us: that most of the things people worry about never happen anyway.  But I think his meaning is slightly different, or, at least, includes the observation that we tend to be anxious at such superficial levels.  Most of the things that we fear, and are anxious about, don't have any more importance in eternity that a blink of an eyelid.  We are always able to see this with hindsight, but somehow it is difficult to see it in that way at the moment of our particular anxiety. 

If a conscious, blessed eternity had more of a share in our thoughts and hopes, we would have a lower anxiety rate, for sure.  In this sense, anxiety is caused by our lack of maturity in the faith.

2. We instinctively know that the second thing the Lord says is true in our experience.  That is, our anxiety is non-productive. "v.27"  And it certainly does not help the anxiety, for we find ourselves anxious, nonetheless.  Anxiety is something we see as counter-productive when the dust settles, but, perhaps, if we see it often enough, it will modify our anxiety in the future.

3. Moreover, Jesus said that we should not be anxious because out Heavenly Father is our provider. "vv.31-33"

One of the most magnificent truths of the Christian Faith, correctly understood, is the belief that God is sovereign.  Without this, our view of God would be essentially a pagan one.  Even those Christians who tend to deny this sovereignty in regard to salvation, affirm it in regard to our circumstances.  But, curiously, neither of us, -- neither we, nor they -- do a very good job of applying it to our own anxieties.

Take a promise! -- any promise of God's help.  Which one should we take?  "All things work together for good to them that love God and are the called according to his purpose"?  That's a good one.  Or take the verse; "For the Lord himself hath said: I will never leave thee nor forsake thee..."  There are dozens more.  Romans 12: 2; Psalm 23: 1; Matthew 28: 20.  We could go around the rooms and come up with a score of other anti-anxiety promises.  And we use those texts to deal with our involuntary anxiety.

God surely has gone on record that he is our Deliverer, our Provider, our Comforter; and in this passage that is before us, the Lord seems to say that he does this automatically, even before we come to him and ask.  Only, we do ask in order to deal with our anxieties, anxieties which we should not have, but which we do have.

4. Furthermore, Jesus says in this passage, that we should not be anxious because most of the things that we are anxious about, come to us by way of bi-products from what should be the main concern of our lives. " v.33."

The main concern of our lives is the same here as it is in the Westminster Shorter Catechism: "The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever."  Jesus says the same thing when he says "Seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." 

Our problem is a larger one than the mere problem of being anxious about mundane things, which we are all too frequently anxious about.  It is a problem of faith: so that we will believe that God will fulfill his promises and that we will concur in his judgments as to what our needs are, which the Lord speaks about in v.32.  There is the area in which we have reason to spend time before the Lord in prayer and contemplation.

If you are a Christian, you, no doubt, have spent much time praying about specific results of Christian faith in your life, and these are important things to pray for.  But, do you also pray that you may be reconciled to what God finally decides in the matter?  Here is a matter of not just a check-list kind of prayer, but a matter for a struggling, wrestling kind of prayer involving much contemplation, often ending in "My Father, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will but thine be done." 

If you are a Christian, you no doubt have spent much time praying for specific results and successes in your life, and these are appropriate things to pray for.  But, do you also pray that you may be reconciled to what God reveals as his sovereign will in the matter?  Here is something, not just for a "check list" kind of prayer but a matter for a struggling, wrestling kind of prayer, involving much contemplation and often ending in "My Father, let this cup pass from me!  Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done." 

II. LET US, APPLY THIS TO OUR ANXIETIES FOR A MOMENT.

1. Let us sort out some of our anxieties, this morning; anxieties about finances; anxieties about career, about other people and you; anxieties about your children.  Anxieties about God's use of you as his servant and allowing you to be used of God for an eternal purpose in the lives of others, whether they be happenstance contacts -- in your life, family and relatives. 

Let us affirm God's sovereignty over the affairs of our lives and our commitment to his will and to his kingdom in regard to those original three anxieties you sorted out in the beginning.

And if you cannot bring yourself to do that absolutely, will you, at least, pray to God that he will give you the faith to do it to some small extent?

1. I understand that anxiety, by its very nature, is involuntary.  The principle of a lie detector device is that almost everybody has a little bit of anxiety in telling a lie.  Anxiety is involuntary.  And a lie detector senses that anxiety in a person telling a lie. 

2. Indeed, I do not think that God does prohibit anxiety in the same way that he prohibits adultery, for example.  In fact, the Lord's choicest saints, even our perfect Lord Jesus showed a kind of anxiety, at times.  Did not the Lord show this when he said to his disciples: "Now is my soul troubled even unto death." ( Matthew 26: 38)  And when he prayed: "Father, let this cup pass from me!  Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done," as it is recorded in Matthew's Gospel (Matthew 26: 39).  And Luke reports that the sweat poured off of his brow, as if it were really drops of blood (Luke 22: 44).

And in Paul's Second letter to the Corinthians we have a passage mentioning Paul's "anxiety for the churches," (II Corinthians 11: 28) as he says.

In the light of this, I think that we are to say that the command to "not be anxious" does not forbid us to be what we cannot help being, but it directs us to the management of this involuntary reaction.  It tells us to not wallow in our anxiety; it commands us to not allow the anxiety to take charge of our lives and actions.  It charges us to deal with it in a godly and theological way, rather than in a self-glorifying, self-protecting way. 

4. As we have seen, that solution is a theological solution.  The solution is in remembering and exercising faith in the kind of God our heavenly Father is and of our relationship to him, and in aggressively seeking his kingdom in all things. 

The remedy to our anxiety is a praying about, meditating about, affirming, rehearsing the attributes of our God and Heavenly Father.  And as our faith that these things are true -- is strengthened, and our commitment to the righteousness and suitability of Christ's righteousness is increased, our anxiety is managed and our lives experience the benefits of the Gospel.  That is something heavy-duty to pray about!

And, as in so many other things having to do with our Christian lives, the "means of grace" are prominent: "The Word of God, prayer, the sacraments, the fellowship of the saints" are "means of grace" in regard to keeping this commandment.  We read the Word and see, as here, the faithfulness of our God.  We struggle with the truths and appropriate them by much prayer and meditation before God.  "The communion of the saints," as it was called in the ancient church -- what we usually call "Christian fellowship," where we publicly confess our sins and our fears and where we are able to see the growth in grace in one another, gives us hope and an example that we too will deal with our anxieties on the basis of what we know to be true by faith.