Seek Him First

Why do we worry?

Why do we feel anxious at times?

What do we do with our fear?

In our Pastor Leadership Team meeting today, one of our elders, Norm Nason, offhandedly said, "Anxiety is a form of suffering," and "Suffering is meant to bear fruit."

Suffering is meant to bear fruit?!

That is true, right?

It's frustrating. But in Christianity, the redemption of suffering is a central truth. 

Does that apply to my anxiety? 

Does that apply to my worry?

Should I expect the internal struggles, the anxieties of my heart and mind, to actually bear a sort of fruit in me?

Watch last Sunday's sermon "Potent - He Unveils Me" from our Easter series Toward the Cross

Jesus teaches us:

"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 (short) 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" Matthew 6:25-33.

Ah, I love how Jesus' tone is so compassionate and challenging at the same time. 

He gently articulates how illogical it is to worry. 

And how fear is fueled by keeping our minds separate from a world where God reigns.

It's true, our hearts areanxious about so many things.

And yet our anxiety reveals a potential healing. 

It's true, suffering and anxiety can produce fruit...

When we follow it to its source.

For example, our anxiety around clothes is quelled, as we see how God dresses the flowers.

Our anxiety around our appearance is nuanced when we realize God has spent His own creative power to dress basic inanimate objects.

How much more is His beauty expressed in me? In you?

Same with the birds. 

Our anxiety around provision and need is undermined when we see that God cares about delicate, fragile things like the tiniest birds. 

"Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young at a place near your altar, O LORD of Heaven’s Armies, my King and my God!" Psalm 84:3

The fact that God's created order prioritizes the daily care of such basic things as birds ought to disturb us a bit. 

It's said as if He were divinely feeding Him from His own storehouse of birdseed. 

So how much more our big, human, very real needs? Our felt needs? Our areas of lack, fear, or loss?

If God aims seed at the sparrows, is He not also aimed at our anxieties too?

The truth is fear and anxiety, apart from God, are fruitless. 

Anxiety and fear only inflict punishment on our minds and hearts. 

Instead, God Himself has created our hearts to flourish, to come alive, even in suffering. 

Oh, that the very seed of the ground and the petals of the flowers would cry to our souls--we are included in God's great provision!

He doesn't hold back from flowers or birds...and he won't hold back from me either!

Like Jesus gently says to His daughter, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary [sitting at His feet]. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” Luke 10:41-42.

Don't beat yourself up for having anxiety. 

You can't muscle your way out of it. 

But don't let it rule you either. 

God Himself has wired you to flourish in His love. 

He's provided for you.

He's adorned you.

He loves you.

And we see this most clearly in Jesus. 

We'll see it most markedly in His cross. 

On Sunday, we'll study more of Jesus as our beloved brother, Jim Hatcher, Missionary for GEM in Austria, takes us deeper into the person of Jesus through the scriptures and the Spirit.

See you Sunday!

Pastor Dave