Matthew 6:25–34 (NIV)

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 than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look 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? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

In this portion of Scripture, Jesus brings together two ideas that seem to have nothing in common. What does worry have to do with seeking? It turns out that they are very closely linked.

Worry is always focused on something in the future. You dwell upon what could possibly go wrong someday, and then carry the burden of it as if it was happening to you in the present. Worrying is putting your faith into the belief that God is going to fail, and then struggling to find your own solution to the problem. Worry robs you of the peace of the present for the sake of the possibility of the lack of peace in the future. Now, once you realize that worry is merely faithless speculation, you would think it would be easy to stop worrying. Unfortunately, you can know all of this and still struggle with worry because you can’t stop worrying just by realizing it is irrational. The only way to stop worrying is to place your focus on something else. Instead of looking to the future, you have to focus on the present.

Seeking is a very present action. You don’t seek something that isn’t there already. Everything that is sought is sought in the present. You are trying to find it now. If you don’t know where your keys are, you seek them. The goal is to find them and have them in hand. Everyone talks about seeking the Kingdom, but nobody really talks about finding. You seek it now because it is available to you right now. In seeking the Kingdom, the goal is to find it and have it in hand. You seek that you may find, and you find that you may be able to do what needs to be done.

If you struggle with worry, and don’t we all, it is important to know that if we are to follow Jesus we must learn to overcome this destructive tendency. It prevents us from experiencing the peace and joy that Jesus offers to us. This is where Jesus’ exhortation to seek out the Kingdom and his righteousness comes into play. The only way to stop worrying for the future is to begin seeking the Kingdom in the present.

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INVITATION