No Need to Worry

No Need to Worry

Matthew 6.25-27; 33-34

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

As the snow covered the ground around my house Friday, I watched the birds huddling up in a bush under the eves of my house. A few would eat at the feeder while the others waited out of the weather. It was certainly no weather for flying, but the birds knew exactly what to do. They did not worry about the weather; the merely waited it out.

This reminds me of our Lord’s instructions on worrying found here in Matthew. We are told to ‘not worry about [our lives].” He shows us how the “birds of the air. . .do not sow or reap or store away in barns,” but are fed by our heavenly Father. It becomes much easier to avoid worry when we stop to consider the birds. God always provides them a place with shelter and food. And yet we worry He will not provide for us. We feel the unquenchable desire to worry over our needs, forgetting that God has already met them.

I do not mean to say that we shall always have physical safety, or that our bank accounts will always be overflowing. God never promises anything of the sort. There is a very dangerous sort of preaching these days that says that if we just follow God, He will bless us with stuff. He does not promise stuff; He promises life in Him. He has given eternal life, which is enough for us to cease worrying. If we really stop and think about it, what do we really have to fear if we are saved? Physical death is a mere passing between worlds. Trials and temptations will end, and our Lord will be there while and after they occur. That is why the scripture is so powerful that says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8.31b). If God is our Shepherd, why do we need to worry? The Psalmist echoes this in Psalm 23 when he says “[e]ven though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (Psalm 23.4ab). Because God is our Shepherd, there is no need to fear. He is with us wherever we go.

I hope you will not fill your heart with worry. Whether it be tests or work or family or trials or temptations, know that Jesus goes with you. Just as He feeds the birds of the air, so too He will feed you exactly what you need when you need it. We cannot always comprehend God’s plans, but we know that He will be there with us as they occur. There’s nothing to worry about! Amen.

With love in Christ,



Austin Aldrich