Are You a Fretting Worrier?

 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,

If we wanted to sum up Jesus’ teachings on how to live, how to exercise faith, and how to please God, we could do so by quoting the sixth chapter of Matthew. What a marvelous and amazing chapter it is! From start to finish, Jesus outlines the image of a successful Christian, one who wholly places faith in God—and lives accordingly.

In addition to telling us how to live, Jesus cautions against something very dangerous and destructive: worry. Oh, I know, if you’re like me you joke that you “have to worry” because it’s “my job” (as a parent, grandparent, whatever). But chronic worry is no joking matter; Jesus, in fact, tells us not to do it.

Is He expecting the impossible? Yes and no. It is impossible in our own strength simply to stop worrying. The harder we try, the more we will fail—and the more we will worry about our failure to stop worrying. But despite the fact we cannot in our own strength stop worrying, God can certainly change us from fretting worriers to victorious warriors. But we must cooperate with Him in the process.

How do we do that? By paying attention to all the positive things Jesus mentions in that chapter: how to give, how to pray, how to fast, how to lay up treasures in heaven—all of which find their culmination in trusting God to supply our needs. Matthew 6:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” This tells us that if we will spend our time focusing and concentrating on God and His righteousness and what He’s called us to do for His Kingdom, then He will make sure we have everything we need for our daily lives.

What does that look like? It looks like a humble believer who puts relationship with God above all else—prayer and praise time, Bible reading and memorization, fasting, giving, serving. When we are doing those things as He directs us to do, we will soon find that we have no time or energy left to waste on worry. And that, after all, is the abundant life Jesus died to give us. All we have to do is choose to live it.

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Kathi Macias is a multi-award winning writer who has authored 30 books.
“Beyond Me. Living a You-first Life in a Me-first World”
“Mothers of the Bible Speak to Mothers of Today”