The Secret to No More Worry

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?" Matthew 6:25-27 

     This verse has been on repeat in my head all week.  Just a few weeks ago I read Matthew 6 and wrote in my journal how ashamed I am of myself for the petty things I worry about.  I remember thinking there are people with valid reasons to worry about food and clothes and those worries don't even cross my mind, yet, Jesus was asking them not to worry? Yikes! I found myself wishing Jesus couldn't see the things I worry about on a daily basis.  Well here we are, just a few short weeks later, and suddenly I am finding myself worried about those things.  Three weeks ago I never dreamed this could be a reality for me.  I imagine a lot of us are in this same boat right now amidst the current coronavirus pandemic.  Life has sort of come to a halt and we don't know what tomorrow will look like.  We don't know how long well have money for groceries or if we'll even be able to go to a grocery store and if we do have some money and the stores are still open, will they have any milk and eggs left to feed my son?  Now I'm really starting to kick myself for those silly worries a few weeks back... but I'm still not supposed to worry?  While repeating this scripture over and over in my head this week I found myself asking God "how?"  How am I not supposed to worry right now when it seems our world is completely spinning out of control like we've never seen before? 

   I opened my bible and read this passage that I could not get out of my head and the secret is right there in that passage.  I realized God's actually been preparing me for this.  My church is going through a series on spiritual disciplines.  There was one week that we were in Matthew 6 looking at the spiritual disciplines listed there.  I remember sitting in service and thinking this 'do not worry' section tagged at the end feels really out of place but when I read it the other night it made complete sense to me to be paired with spiritual disciplines.  After basically saying do not worry, do not worry, do not worry, Jesus says in  Matthew 6:33 "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." What better way to seek his kingdom and his righteousness than to practice spiritual disciplines?  Instead of worrying, Christ wants us to divert our attention to him.  Lets look to him first and there will be no room for worry!

   Looking to him first.  If you've read my intro to this blog, you know that this verse reminded me of a bride and grooms first look on their wedding day.  The first look is a modern trend where couples get a moment to see each other before their wedding ceremony.  I can only imagine that all of the worries and anxieties that every bride has just melt away the moment she locks eyes with her groom. The church is to be married to Christ one day but we have this incredible opportunity to have a relationship with him now.  Let's together, as a church look to him, our first look, and let all of these worries in this life vanish as we lock eyes with our groom.  

     I feel God has put it on my heart to start this blog and he has given me a vision and passion for it.  I pray it will be an encouragement to anyone reading as I share the things God is teaching me and putting on my heart and I pray that it can be one way that we seek him, his kingdom and his righteousness first and we can let go of the worries this life brings.