Anxiety
Today’s Lectio 365 daily devotional used the text from Matthew 6:25-27 to reflect on God’s goodness and provision. It struck me that Jesus knew our propensity to worry and become absorbed in negative possibilities, which easily cripple our ability to live in the freedom that Christ exampled to us.
When considering the issues we often worry about, they seem to fall into two major categories, the first being things that we should have done differently in the past, and secondly what might happen in the future.
Looking at each in turn; worrying about our mistakes from the past is so common for many people. “What could I have done differently?”, “If only I had made a different decision…”, and so on. I suggest that the only question that should be asked is “What can I learn now about what happened then?” because nothing can change what has already happened – we can only move forward into a new and unwritten future.
In the second scenario, worrying about the future, is like approaching a 4-way intersection 100 metres ahead, and worrying that there will be a crash because there is a truck in the intersection. As drivers, we know that when we reach the intersection, the truck will have moved through and we won’t hit it, so there is no need to worry about the truck’s current position. It seems like a no-brainer, but many of us worry about less tangible issues that haven’t happened as if they are foregone conclusions. Essentially, we think the metaphorical truck in our intersection is going to stop and we are going to hit it.
Worrying about the future is buying trouble from the future and paying for it now.
Worrying about the past is continuing to pay a dept that has already been paid.
There are no “what if’s” or “in only’s” in life. There is what has happened, what is now, and what is unwritten in the future. Jesus reminds us in this verse that worry is unnecessary because our loving Father cares for us completely. We can put our regrets from the past and trust for the future into God’s hands, and let God bring healing and hope.
Grace and peace for the journey.
- God is Hiding in Plain Sight - 10 December 2024
- Consumed by Fire - 13 August 2024
- Attitudes, Actions and Outcomes - 14 June 2024