You Can't Afford To Worry

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Matthew 6:34  


I would be willing to bet if I was a betting man (and I am not) that more Christians and maybe even some non believers have heard quoted or read for themselves, Jesus words about worry in Matthew 6:34 this past month. If worrying wasn’t natural to our human existence Jesus wouldn’t have instructed His disciples not to do so as there would have been no need. Worry is the natural initial human response to what we don’t know or can’t see and is why we are all prone to do so. That is why faith has never been as important in life than it is now, believing in who God is and His love for us and what He promises to do. Especially now as our world deals with the coronavirus and everything that is following in its wake.  

Did you know that the word “worry” comes from an old English word which means “to choke.” It was Corrie Ten Boom who made this observation, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength. It does not enable us to escape evil, it makes us unfit to face evil when it comes. It is the interest you pay on trouble before it comes.” In other words, none of us can afford to worry but what we can do is to grow in our knowledge as to why we shouldn’t worry.

From reading Matthew 6:34 we can learn some really important life lessons about worry. Like why worry about things that don’t last? Jesus is making it clear that whatever it is we are worrying about is something that is going to pass. In other words, why worry about things you have no control over? If you can’t control it you can’t stop it anyway, so why worry about? We can’t forget that though we don’t have the power to control we do have the power to surrender.

If you back up just a few verses to Matthew 6:26 you find Jesus telling us not even the birds of the air worry. They trust God to provide and care for them. Why is it that birds can trust God but you and I can’t? Jesus makes the point that God cares for the birds of the air and yet we are more valuable to God than them. It might be natural to worry before becoming a follower of Jesus but it’s totally unnatural to worry once we place our hope and trust in Him.

Worry is not only the unnatural response to the child of faith, there is no benefit to it as well when you read verse 27. Can you name one good thing that happens to us when we worry? Nothing good comes from worrying but the list is long as to the price we will pay, emotionally, physically, spiritually, relationally, you name it there is a cost, a huge cost to worry, and one we cant afford to pay.

Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6:28-33 that the main reason why we don’t need to worry is that God provides, period. God provides we read because God is good and because He is watching out for us and over us. Even before we ask, God already knows the things we have need so Jesus tells us instead of wasting our time on worrying to focus our attention on worship. Instead of trying to control all the things in life we can’t control Jesus calls us to focus on what we can control, and that being our worship, our prayer and our trusting in God by believing in Him and taking Him at His word, knowing when we do,    


“and all these things shall be added to you.”

Matthew 6:33


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