Matthew 6: Stop worrying

Major Philippa Smale encourages us to trust God absolutely.

Key texts

• Matthew 6:25–34

When I first read these verses from Matthew, my mind immediately went to the song by American singer-songwriter Bobby McFerrin, ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’. One line goes: ‘In every life we have some trouble/ But when you worry you make it double.’ If you can, have a listen to the song – beware, it’s an earworm!

Pause and reflect

• Do you find this song too simplistic? Too optimistic? Perfectly good?
• Do you find it offers any answers to coping with life’s problems?

From Bobby, my brain took a leap to Mother Julian of Norwich. They are not exactly contemporaries. Julian was an English anchoress – a type of religious recluse – in the Middle Ages, dying somewhere in the early 1400s. When she recovered from a very serious illness, she consecrated herself to a life of seclusion in a cell attached to St Julian’s Church. During her illness, she experienced a series of religious visions, which she wrote about in Revelations of Divine Love, which are regarded as the earliest known writings by a woman in English.

She dedicated herself to a life of prayer and devotion to God. She did not leave her cell again, but she did have maidservants and a cat.

Julian lived in a time of turmoil that saw the Black Death, the Peasants’ Revolt and the Lollard uprising. However, her theology was always optimistic and God-focused. She stressed his all-embracing love and ultimate goodness. She was unshakeably certain of God’s love for each of his children and that he was in overall charge of all that happened in the world. She was convinced that his children could enjoy his protection in every circumstance.

She wrote about a revelation from Jesus in response to all the doubts and questions she had: ‘Jesus answers with these words, saying: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well”… This was said so tenderly, without blame of any kind toward me or anybody else.’

She also wrote: ‘He [Jesus] did not say you will not be troubled, but he said, you will not be overcome.’

Pause and reflect

• Can you agree with the thought that all manner of things shall be well?
• If this isn’t demonstrably true at the moment, how does that make you feel?

It isn’t really enough to say: ‘Don’t worry, be happy.’ Nor is it really enough to say: ‘All shall be well.’ We have to add a word: ‘Because…’ That ‘because’ can make all the difference to our worry levels. We are encouraged to stop worrying because God loves us more than any other part of his creation and we can trust him absolutely to take care of us whatever happens.

But do we really trust God? Do we really believe that we are incredibly valuable in his eyes?

Jesus tells us we are worth far more than the birds of the air, which are fed by God. God cares about us so much that our names are engraved on the palms of his hands (see Isaiah 49:16).

Jesus says that we are more valuable than plants and flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow. God cares about us so much that he sent his only Son to die for us (see John 3:16). We will never be discarded as worthless. We can trust in a love that will never let us go because we are God’s beloved children.

Pause and reflect

• Make a list of things you know you can trust God for and in.

Jesus points out that worrying really doesn’t get us anywhere. ‘Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?’ (v27). Worrying can subtract hours from us, rather than adding them, and is rarely constructive.

Jesus adds: ‘Each day has enough trouble of its own’ (v34). In the Message paraphrase it says: ‘Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes’ (v34).

Jesus also says that pagans run after food, drink, clothes and the material things of life. But we, as his followers, should be different because we have been given the gift of prayer. In the prayer that he taught us, Jesus says: ‘Give us today our daily bread’ (Matthew 6:11). Therefore, we can ask God for help and provision every day. We can trust him to care for our present needs. That also removes worry about the future.

The most important thing is to work on our relationship with God our Father and Jesus our Saviour. Jesus sums it up: ‘But seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well’ (v33). We need to be right with God and to know, at the very depth of our being, that we can trust him absolutely to be with us and care for us every moment of every day.

1 Peter 5:7 sums it up beautifully: ‘Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.’

When we do that, we will be able to say: ‘All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well!’

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