LUKE 12

22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

If I'm being honest, this is my most anxious time of the year. As a student pastor, life gets really busy as soon as school lets out. In a span of two months we have a leadership retreat (Boot Camp), Backyard Bible Clubs, a weeklong retreat, and a mission trip to the Navajo Nation. In addition we have events every other week, and Sunday still comes around every Sunday.  Every event needs to be planned communicated, planned, and executed. There's an awful lot to do, and an awful lot to go wrong.

I'm not by my nature a worrier, but this time of year I can get a lot of anxiety.

As crazy as things are right now, I'm starting to wonder just how crazy it will get when my kids are older and more social. The pace of life and options available to us makes it extremely difficult for our lives not to spin out of control from busyness.  

The busier our lives get, the less margin our lives have, the more anxiety we will have.

 Jesus had something very simple to say about the anxious life:

22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on."

It's interesting to me that He didn't just say, "Do not be anxious about your life." He makes a point to list off several different things.  We all have a bunch of things going on in our lives, and the more things we have going on in our lives, the more we have to worry about.

3 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!

God provides for the birds, and God loves us far more than the birds.

Maybe part of the problem is that we have too much going on in our lives. We have so much going on we can't control everything.

We want to control the process so that we can control the outcome. 

The problem is that we're supposed to trust God to be the provider.  It's hard to trust God with the process because that means we have to trust Him with the outcome as well.

• Do you trust God to prioritize what is in your life?
• Do you trust God for how you live your life?
• Do you trust God with the scenarios, which come up in your life?
• Do you trust God with the responsibilities He's given you?

When we trust God, we don't need to be anxious!

   Sean Chandler | Associate Pastor

Sean has been a part of the association of Hill Country Bible Churches for over twenty years. He received Christ as a youth while attending Hill Country Bible Church Austin. He attended Hill Country Bible Church NW from 1989 to 2002. At that time he began attending HCBC Pflugerville. He served as a student ministry intern there for two years. In 2008, Sean graduated from Columbia International University with a double major in Bible and Bible teaching. Sean married his wife, Jennifer, in 2006. Their first child, Liam, was born in 2012, and their second, Chloe, was born in 2014.

He blogs regularly at seanchandler.net.