“The cold reality of anxiety”.

Matthew 6:25-34 (ESV)


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? 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? 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.


We all deal with anxiety; but why? As believers in the one who is all and in all, we really have no legitimate reason to be anxious – with that said; anxiety is still a reality.


A few things I have learned from my own experience are that often my emotions are the driving force behind my anxiety. When I feel like I’m not in control, I feel helpless / powerless and weak. Somehow I have tied my self-worth to my ability to control my life. Thus the more control I have the greater my value as a person. When this cycle becomes “out of balance” (from a Christian perspective it is always “out of balance”) that is when I am prone to feeling the stress of anxiety. The reality in this situation is that I have no eternal perspective with regards to life’s situations; which results in pulling tomorrows trouble into today - for which there is NO grace.


Sadly this reveals the "littleness" of my faith in these situations; which ultimately is a trust issue. I tell God that I cannot trust him to see me through life’s hardships, that I cannot trust him to have the ultimate control. Perhaps this is a glimpse of why some are prone to self-doubt with regards to their salvation. Could it be that lack of ability to control every facet of natural life only amplifies ones inherent in-ability to control the spiritual realm? In other words; the fact that we cannot save ourselves from the mundane reveals that we truly cannot save ourselves eternally.


And so if my focus remains fixed on controlling every earthly situation on my own; at best my focus is divided between the temporal and the eternal. At worse I am not seeking (first) Gods kingdom and his righteousness. And despite the resulting torments of anxiety, nothing I desire will be added to my life.

Luther.

“Stagnant water”.

2 Thessalonians 2:15 (ESV)
“So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.”


Have you ever come across a pool of standing water? The entrance to an area I had previously hunted always flooded in spring, leaving foul pools of stagnant water that had to be navigated to reach my blind. When water pools and does not flow, it breeds all manner of foul things, becoming useless for cleansing or consumption.


Spiritually speaking; stagnation leads to backsliding and a lukewarm spirit which God says he will spit out of his mouth. For the believer it is imperative that we stay flowing, moving, always pressing forward in every aspect of our faith.


That ideal can be challenging; especially when we lack a sense of direction, our specific calling being somehow obscured. Nevertheless we must press on, remaining faithful to that which we do know. We must stand firm; regardless of the obstacle, following those familiar paths of the good and right - faithfully. In doing so, we bypass the spiritual stagnation that would keep us from our desired reward.

Luther.

“Equipped for battle”.

Galatians 5:15 (ESV)
“But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”

One of our sons wanted an armor of God play set for Christmas. As parents we knew we must purchase two of these items - one for each son. When we gave the armor play set to our boys, much to our surprise they began to assault one another! We had envisioned them playing side-by-side, focusing their offense toward some fictional “enemy”. We believed that these “gifts” would unify our boys in their playtime. Somehow it escaped us that these “gifts” would be the tools by which our sons would assault one another.

The thought came to me that even adult believers act similarly. We equip ourselves with God’s armor and proceed to attack one another; forgetting that we all serve in the same army. The armor of God is for protection from the enemy of our souls and for offensive measures toward the kingdom of darkness. when it comes to believer to believer interaction we should lay our “swords” down and look for ways to repair the “chinks” in one another’s armor instead of exploiting ones weaknesses for our own gains.

We must remember that we are equipped with spiritual armor to protect and unify us. In the manner of military allies; we may have differing backgrounds and cultures, yet as Christians in God’s army we fight side by side for one kingdom.

Luther.