First

Matthew 6:33-34 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

I am tormented by anxiety and depression. I label it my “thorn in my flesh” that Satan torments me with. They may come separately, or even worse when they are on the heels of one another. They are a very real battle of the mind that effects everything in life, the physical, mental, and spiritual; they are warfare. I could elaborate much more, but last night I encouraged someone to read my favorite scriptures above for their anxiety battle. This morning I had a battle all my own. (The pastor always is struggling with what he is preaching about I promise you.) I awoke to threatening emails, anxiety ridden, and Satan came to steal my early morning joy with the Lord. It was time to seek my own advise. Let’s look at a simple exposition of the scriptures; what do they mean?

These are the last passages in Matthew six, but in the meat of Jesus’ great Sermon on the Mount. That was his greatest sermon, his life’s application to all of his teaching. You can go to most of life’s struggles and find answers directly from Jesus Christ in his message there. In the context of this, the passages before them are speaking about worry, which leads to anxiety, (versus 25-32). Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life… So Jesus is directly addressing worry, which anxiety is elevated worry, and he tells us to simply focus on God in verse 33. Jesus tells us that if we will focus on God first, in other words to seek him above the anxiety, he will take care of the worry. What is worry? It is always about a future event that may or may not take place. God controls the future; he sees it all in the same time, past, present, and future, and he controls it sovereignly. If we seek God with all our mind, heart, body and soul, then we begin to get a glimpse of his sovereignty. The outpouring of our love for him, begins the indwelling of peace. We put Him above our worry.

Verse thirty-four then goes on to take it farther. Jesus says that if you will focus on him, you have no need to worry about tomorrow. 34 “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. (MSG) Why do you need to worry about tomorrow, when tomorrow may never come? You are not guaranteed another breath for another day, and heavens doors could be opened to you all while you were worrying about tomorrow. Just concentrate on whatever you are facing today, focus on the strength provided by the One who gives it abundantly to you. Realize that Satan is trying to steal your victorious joy, by getting you to focus on something that may never happen anyway. Just spend some time with God and let him work out the details of your life. Do that first.