Matthew 6

Where do you find comfort and security?

• Your job
• Your savings
• Shopping
• Food
• Circumstances
• A politician

The problem with most of the places we turn to find comfort and security is that there's nothing secure about them.  The last 10 years have made it perfectly clear how uncertain the job market, our investments, and the political climate are.  Food and shopping only offer a quick fix of comfort, and throughout life we know we can't control our circumstances.

So long as your hope is found in the uncertain things of this world, you will be filled with worry.  Is there a better place to turn?

Jesus addressed worry from a unique direction.  He started his discussion this way:

24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.  25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Verse 25 links these two verses with the word "Therefore."  When we choose to trust money (or things of this world) over God, you will be anxious.  The things that are of this world are insecure. If your security is found in the insecure, YOU WILL BE INSECURE.  That's where worry comes from.

God Provides 

Jesus says there's a better place to put our faith- God.  It's not just that we should blindly trust Him to provide, but we can look at the world around us and trust Him.

26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Jesus addresses two areas people worried about most at that time (food and clothing) with two illustrations:

• Birds remain fed without storing up food
• The fields are clothed in flowers without working

They lived at a time when people worried about their basic needs being met.  Today, we worry about far less.  We worry about losing comfort and luxuries.  Not only do we put our trust in the things of this world, but we also WORRY about LOSING the things of this world.  Both our security and our comfort are found in this world.  Far too often our master is "money" or things of this world.

Therefore, we worry.

I love that, in the middle of talking about worry, Jesus throws into the conversation, "Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?" (NLT). It's so true.  All the time we spend worrying does absolutely nothing productive, but it does say something about where our trust is.

Do Not Be Anxious

31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

The key defeating worry is trusting that God will provide what you NEED for today.  You might not get what you want. You might not get it when you want it.  But God will give you what you need for each day.  Even in the Lord's Prayer, Jesus instructed us to pray: "Give us this day our daily bread."   

All the luxuries of this world can distract us from realizing that true joy and satisfaction are found in God.  When we look for our joy and satisfaction anywhere else, anxiety enters our life.  

• If I have Jesus, I have everything.
• If I have everything but Jesus, I have nothing.

Don’t trust your money for security…trust God

• What if you lived your life as if God knew what you needed and wanted?
• What if you lived as if God really wanted what was best for you?

Then, you’d stop worrying.

PRAYER

Lord, help me to find my joy and satisfaction in You.  You are my provider, and the ultimate source of joy.  Help me to be satisfied with what You provide each day, and thank You for the blessings beyond what I need.

Sean Chandler | Associate

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.

He blogs regularly at seanchandler.net.