40 WAYS 40 DAYS #12 Don’t Worry

#12 Don’t worry 6: 25-34, (10:19)

worry pray

Matthew 6: 25-34

 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. 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 can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry 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 clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

 ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

– NRSV

I chose don’t worry because one of my greatest shortcomings is that I worry about everything. Some would say that I have missed out on experiencing a lot of life because I spend so much time worrying instead. Worrying is an insidious and hard to break habit. So I have always found this passage in the bible more frustrating than inspiring because it makes it sound so easy. It isn’t for me.
Stepping outside my worrying hamster wheel, I also think this passage is easier for people of means to ‘live out’ than those that are poor and marginalised. It seems such a luxury to let go and see what happens. Place your faith in God. When you are days away from being evicted or have no food to feed your kids ‘don’t worry’ must seem like a foreign concept.
– Katherine Koesasi

 

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