September 18, 2022
Daily Devotion:
"Do Not Worry About Tomorrow... "
Matthew 6:34
New International Version
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Wouldn't it be interesting to know how many doctor visits could be eliminated if only we didn't worry? How many millions of nights of lost sleep could be recovered? How many countless hours would be freed up for positive thoughts and maybe even solutions to the problems folks worry about? In Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, the worry he is most concerned about is not whether aging parents are properly being taken care of, or whether children are safe while away from home, or whether the cancer will do its deadly work before a daughter's wedding. The target of Jesus' teaching is our fretting about things that don't really matter in the big picture, such as daily food, drink, and clothing. There are those for whom having the next meal is truly a worry, but that probably doesn't apply to you and me. Yet consider how much time we were on where we will eat, what we will eat, and what we will wear when we go out to eat! For a more modern audience, Jesus might well have included worry about stock market fluctuations, or rising or falling house prices, or whether we'll be laid off in the next corporate takeover. Maybe too-terrorist attacks, or global warming, or wars over which we have no control. The problem with worry is not just that it is unhealthy and a waste of time, but that it often represents a lack of trust in God's providence. Or fails to grasp the bigger, more important picture. Or wrongly prioritizes physical needs over our greater spiritual needs. In short, worry is usually symptomatic of far more significant underlying causes. And if there is anything we should really worry about, that would be it. The worrying question is: Which of my many unnecessary worries are a worry to God?
