If I asked a person to explain being anxious, it would not be hard. The picture we have usually includes someone so intensely worried about something that it is obvious to everyone around them. However, the issue is more pervasive as indicated by the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 6:25-34. He uses a flower as an illustration, because the least of them is more beautiful than any effort we make to clothe ourselves. He aptly describes a lily being arrayed with a beauty that could not be matched by Solomon, who had the power, finances and wisdom to make a valiant attempt to match the beauty of a simple flower by clothing his life using his own efforts. The book of Ecclesiastes records the effort he made to make it happen. He could not do it; we cannot.
The portion of scripture begins with a wider scope and command: don’t be anxious about life. And it closes with the God-breathed interpretation: the core issue for our lives is what we seek after. If the world and its potential is what we seek, then it is foremost in our basic thoughts, actions, plans, and aspirations. When this is our state, it means we have decided that we need to get things or do things to preserve ourselves. It is, in short, our own way. It leads to the wrong priorities, worry, and being anxious. We can be sophisticated about it so that it does not seem so starkly true, but it is true nonetheless.
So God makes it clear: seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. In doing so, the things we need will be handled. This does not mean we won’t be involved, but our involvement in affairs with Him first keeps things in the right order. We are created to be related to our Creator rather than chase after various parts and pieces of what has been created. Even what He has created says things around us are temporary, so worrying and being anxious won’t help matters. The conclusion He states is clear: pursuit of life without God is pointless.
You might say, “Nice sermon, but it is not connected with reality.” My wife and I live day-to-day with life threatening illness. She has high stage cancer that is not operable. We can choose to worry, or we can choose to trust God. We do what we are able, but we take the situation before Him all the time because we know that being worried and anxious about life without Him means we are already dead–unable to relate to the truth about the Kingdom of God.
You might say, “You have never worked a real life. You don’t understand.” I am not payed to preach or teach. I worked like most people work. While retired, my activities (as best I am able) are kept before Him just like they were when I was working.
The Bible is true. God’s message is meant to work anytime, anywhere, and for anyone. He paid the price for our choosing our own way by paying for our misdoing with His life. Then He sealed the truth of the message by rising from the dead. So when He “suggests” that we seek His kingdom first, He means it. The message is authenticated.
