25 “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? 26 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?” Matthew 6:25.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33
Do not be anxious about your life. Period. Full stop. This is what God means. He then pulls in two illustrations of our most basic tangible needs as human beings, food and clothing. Jesus was telling us not to be anxious about food and clothing. When he says that life is more than food and the body more than clothing, this command to not be anxious applies to EVERYTHING ELSE about life.
Don’t be anxious about what house you’re going to live in. Don’t be anxious about what car you’re going to drive. Don’t be anxious about finding your future spouse. Don’t be anxious about whether or not your business will succeed or fail. Don’t be anxious about your next meal. Don’t be anxious about your next pair of shoes. Don’t be anxious about the current political climate. Don’t be anxious…don’t be anxious…dont be anxious.
The other creatures on this earth have somewhat of an advantage on anxiety. They just go about doing what God has programmed for each species to do. They literally have no concept of anxiety. However, they are also limited in the sense that they can’t access faith either. Faith is a o uniquely human characteristic given to us by God. We have the ability to access the spiritual realm through faith. Faith can be used for both good and ill. Anxiety is literally the negative belief in what COULD happen.
What does it mean to be anxious? It does not mean as the KJV says to “take NO thought.” To be anxious is to obsess about the state or your resources.
This all has to do with your relationship to resources. Life cannot happen without resources. There are two opposite approaches to your attitude about resources. This obsession can manifest itself in two different ways. These ways are categorized by whether or not you have the skill and ability to maintain and multiply resources. The ability to maintain and multiply resources comes naturally to some people. Others have to learn the skill.
If you are obsessed with resources and you have these skills, the obsession can lead to prosperity. And the danger with that prosperity is that it breeds pride. It leads to a sense of self-reliance, and the obsession will cause you to boast about your resources. “Look at my house! Look at my car! Look at my business! Look at my portfolio! Look at my bank accounts. I’m a self-made man!” The problem with this is that God can pull the plug on your resources at any time he chooses. It is programmed into our spirit that resources can be lost. It is then when we see the anxiety manifest as fear about LOSING the resources.
The second type of obsession is when you don’t have the skills and ability to maintain and multiply resources. This obsession leads to poverty. No matter how hard you try, you can just never obtain sufficient resources. And just the like the spirit of self reliance and pride, the opposite manifests itself in poverty as shame. Sometimes, even people who have the skills are deceived by the enemy to think that they don’t. This is just another path to the same poverty and shame. In time anxiety will become a self-fulfilling prophecy which will only multiply the poverty and shame.
At the other extreme are those who choose not to think about resources at all. When the possiblity of a lack of resources comes along, they blissfullly cover up their ears and choose to ignore it altogether. This attitude doesn’t last very long though, because in time the lack of resources will become so evident that it can’t be ignored. When this happens the pendulum swings back to the obsessions about resources. They will end up either in prosperity and pride or in poverty and shame.
The truth lies in the middle. Verse 33 says to “Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. What are “all these things?” They are the resources of life. The resources of life are best maintained when you seek the spiritual first.
Notice it doesn’t say “find first the kingdom of God.” Once you begin seeking the kingdom of God first, God starts the process of aligning his purpose and resources to help you accomplish your role in the kingdom”
One mistake that we often make is thinking that God has the same set of resources available for every person. Seeing that the every person’s mission is different, the resources will be different. This is why God’s command against covetousness is so important. We must focus on the missioin God has given us and seek only the resources we need for that mission.
There were prophets in the Old Testament that lived in extreme poverty. This was natural because they lived among people who all were living in extreme poverty. To fulfill the mission God gave them, financial resources were not required. On the other hand, King Solomon’s mission required great riches and wealth, in spite of the fact that he ended up misusing them for a large portion of his life. This all goes to show the futility of comparing the resources God has for you with the resources He provides for others.
To make this all practical, here’s what we need to do….
- Remember Your Source (God)
- Discover His MIssion for You
- Responsibly plan
- Seek the resources in the spirit first (prayer)
- Receive the resources as needed
- Remember to thank God
