“Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What
will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly
seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these
things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things
will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care
for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:31–34, NASB95)
Matthew 6:33 is one of those verses that is a favorite to
many, especially to those who struggle with making ends meet or questions about
tomorrow. These verses today and the ones that come immediately before it all
have to do with worry and anxiety. They have to do with carrying burdens that
seem unbearable or approaching deadlines that seem unable to be met. They have
to do with people who live under the burden of waiting for the next shoe to drop.
The Bible has a lot to say about worry and what we are to do about those
worries.
Jesus wraps up this portion of His message with the instruction
not to worry about things down the road or beyond today such as tomorrow’s
food, drink, and clothing, and He set these worries in the context of the
Gentiles who eagerly seek after these things. Looking to the setting of His message we need to be mindful that He was speaking to the Jews as His
audience. And to them the Gentiles were those who did not know their God nor
did they seek after Him. Their hope was in their own ability to provide. Beyond
themselves there was no expectation of deliverance of any form short of
possibly pleasing and gaining the favor of some god which Jesus has already
declared does not exist. Their hope outside of themselves was an empty hope and
their worries were very real.
Jesus reminds His believers and even us today as people who
know our hope in God, that our Heavenly Father does truly know our needs and He
is powerful to act to take care of them. He created us to need food. He created
us to need water. He knows our need of clothing having Himself clothed Adam and
Eve after they sinned and they found themselves naked in the garden. None of
these needs are surprises to our God, and we know with an absolute certainty
that He loves us more than we could ever imagine. We were reminded earlier how
He provides for the birds of the air and how He adorns the flowers of the
field. He does this for all of His creation, and we are told that He will do
much more for us.
It is in this context that we read, “But seek first His
kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Jesus reminds His hearers that their real priority is to seek after God and His
plan for them with their whole hearts and to understand and walk in His
righteousness. For us who have trusted Jesus for our salvation we know that our
righteous God has put on us the righteousness of His own Son and has called us as
His beloved children to follow after and serve Him. This is to be our real
priority before God, and in this process of seeking Him we are to lay our
anxieties for the other stuff at His feet and trust Him to tend to them as
well. In 1 Peter we read, “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares
for you.” (1 Peter 5:7, NASB95)
We are told by Jesus later in this same message to consider
just how much our earthly fathers who sin do for us and then imagine how much
more our heavenly Father will do for us. “If you then, being evil, know how to
give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in
heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11, NASB95) His
power is unlimited, His love is boundless, and He is able to do so much more
than we can ever ask or imagine.
In the last verse of today’s passage we read that we are not
to worry about tomorrow, but to lay the trials of today before our God and to trust
His to strengthen us to deal with the trials of tomorrow when tomorrow comes. We
can be reminded of the people of Israel for whom God provided their daily bread
(manna) in a very literal sense day after day, week after week, month after
month, and year after year. God was immensely faithful to them and He will be
the same to us. This is how He tells us to trust Him—laying each burden before
Him as those burdens come, trusting Him to strengthen and to provide.
When we get up to work we can be thankful for the work that
will meet those needs. When we are able to set something aside for a later date
we can thank Him for His abundant provision. And when things run short we can
even give Him praise for enabling us that we might come out standing on the
other side. One of my favorite reminder verses in this area is 1 Corinthians
10:13 where we read, “No temptation [test or trial] has overtaken you but such
as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted [tested
or tried] beyond what you are able, but with the temptation [test or trial] will
provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” (1
Corinthians 10:13, NASB95)
This may not make a whole lot of sense in our culture where
we are hammered over things such as retirement and having the funds to survive.
And it is not even to say that we are not to lay away things for the future so
that we might be able to live during that day. But in a very real sense for
those who don’t know where the immediate things are coming from and how those
pressing needs will be met, Jesus tells us to look to Him, to lay our needs at His
feet, and to worship Him with all of our hearts. This can be a very difficult
thing for us as humans to do, but it is what God assures us we can do as we
wait on Him.
“Trust in the Lord
with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways
acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your
own eyes; fear the Lord and turn
away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.”
(Proverbs 3:5–8, NASB95)
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