Worrying

All of us worry. All of us worry for many issues and struggles of life.

Because Jesus understands that worry is a universal human struggle, he is emphatic when he tells us not to worry. In the original Greek, his statement against worry is couched as an imperative or a command-and three times he offers this command!

"Then Jesus said to his disciples: 'Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?'" (Luke 12:22-26, NIV) and (Also see Matthew 6:25-34)

But why is Jesus so passionate about getting us not to worry?

We are told not to worry because worry can lead to selfish decisions in life. Jesus specifically says you shouldn't be anxious about your life. He is hinting at one of the major problems with worry: at the end of the day, my worries, my anxieties, are all about me-my world, my desires, my longings. Worry is me-centered.

The worry that Jesus speaks of in our text knows nothing of self-sacrifice, nothing of laying down one's rights for the good of others, nothing of humility.