Go Rest High on that Mountain - Pt 2

“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? 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? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 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? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:25-34 ESV).

Jesus spoke these words of our reading precisely for you; they are intended to help you overcome whatever is making you anxious today. I suppose I chose this text for the next few devotionals because of the thoughts that came to me recently when I went to the Pharmacy to pick up a prescription. As those of you who have Medicare and the requisite supplementary insurance know, there is a deductible required at the beginning of each calendar year. For Mary and I, we were informed ours had risen a bit this year. It is now $410.00 per person. No problem. It’s just the cost of retaining our health; and, after all, a few dollars more to meet the deductible won’t break us. Well, I guess I was startled back to reality when I went to pick up one of my prescriptions and given the bill. I guess I should’ve known. It is not a generic. That’s not available yet. However, when the technician said, “That will be $409.00, I was a bit shaken. Since I didn’t have a heart attack at that moment, I was able to later reflect that at least I have now met my deductible for the year! But my struggle with anxiety is not just at the beginning of the year insurance deductibles. I can be anxious as a result of many circumstances beyond my control. I’m going to blame it on some weird quirk in my personality, or maybe some remnant of imbalanced parental upbringing. After all, that’s easier than thinking it could be because there is sin in my mind and heart every day. Whatever the reason, it is a very real experience that I hate and have to deal with every day. But I know it’s not just my problem. We all find ourselves in that predicament at some point. We all need this word from the Lord Jesus to remind us that his kingship is not built on the anxiety of his people. He has made himself king over us for the very opposite purpose, namely, to take away our anxiety. In my own life the sheer statement from the Lord that he does not want me to be anxious has a great tendency to give me peace. But when you add to it the reasons he gives why we don’t need to be anxious, his word becomes tremendously powerful. Tomorrow we will begin the specifics. Today, dwell on this: your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. He hasn’t forgotten. He will provide it all!