Chapter 17 - The Simplicity of the Carefree Life
Bonhoeffer- 'The way to misuse our possessions is to use them as an insurance against the morrow. Anxiety is always directed to the morrow, whereas goods are in the strictest sense meant to be used only for to-day. By trying to ensure for the next day we are only creating uncertainty to-day. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. The only way to win assurance is by leaving to-morrow entirely in the hands of God and by receiving from him all we need for to-day. If instead of receiving God's gifts for to-day we worry about tomorrow, we find ourselves helpless victims of infinite anxiety. "Be not anxious for the morrow" : either that is cruel mockery for the poor and wretched, the very people Jesus is talking to who, humanly speaking, really will starve if they do not make provision to-day. Either it is an intolerable law, which men will reject with indignation: or it is the unique proclamation of the gospel of the glorious liberty of the children of God, who have a Father in heaven, a Father who has given his beloved Son. How shall not God with him also freely give us all things?'
Mat_6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (KJV)
Mat 6:34 Then do not be anxious for tomorrow. For the morrow will be anxious of itself. Sufficient to each day is its own trouble. (LITV)
Rom_8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
My thoughts-
Do we use our possession as an insurance against tomorrow? We do, don't we? We even go so far as to INSURE our possessions to they are being doubly used as an insurance against the future. We have *things* we possess which we can possible sell to give us necessary funds to provide for our own needs.
Telling a starving person not to worry about tomorrow is cruel isn't it? Shouldn't they be obsessed with worry about not starving?
I confess, I'm a worrier.
I've been riddled with anxiety since I was very young, and it's not something I seem to be able to rid myself of. Throughout my life I've been on several medications all geared to help control the anxiousness I've experienced. Anxiety has become a sickness. Anxiety can paralyze.
When I was young, anxiety wasn't much thought about but by the time I was in my mid to late twenties, anxiety it was suddenly very common and they had several drugs people were using for people with anxiety. I just found out this year at my fiftieth birthday party when my sister was reading a list of things that occurred in 1963, that valium was first used in 1963. So from the time I was born until twenty some years later anxiety as a very real problem became prevalent. The term panic attack/disorder didn't become officially recognized until 1980, I was 17 at the time, and I'd already lived intensely with anxiety since I was 10. So my experience with being OVERLY anxious is going on 40 years now. To me it's a way of life that has limited me in many ways and defined me. To tell me not to worry, to not be anxious is almost like telling me to stop breathing.
So, how do I as a Christ follower take these words about not be anxious about tomorrow? My first instinct is to say, "That's easy to say, hard to do."
Mat 6:34 Then do not be anxious for tomorrow. For the morrow will be anxious of itself. Sufficient to each day is its own trouble. (LITV)
Could we take this a step further and say we shouldn't be worried about today?
Almost all anxiety is truly future focused, focused on possibilities, focused on what may or may not happen whether it's tomorrow or five minutes from now. Anxiety as a rule dissipates when the thing you are anxious over is gone, yet tomorrow is never gone. How does one who is worried about tomorrow ever find relief from that anxiousness?
Truly this is truth- 'Sufficient to each day is its own trouble' or as the KJV says- 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. '
We do have enough worry in the here and now, don't we? Each day has its own trouble, and worrying about tomorrows troubles will avail nothing.
In fact, worry avails nothing.
This is truth--
Mat 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Mat 6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Mat 6:27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
Mat 6:28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
Mat 6:29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Mat 6:30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Mat 6:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
Mat 6:32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
Mat 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Mat 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
The ONLY way we can truly NOT worry is by believing that NOTHING matters but CHRIST JESUS our SAVIOR, and eternal life in Him.
If we TRULY believe only CHIRST matters then we have to believe that whatever our lot is, whatever we are called to endure no matter how awful, no matter how hard here and now, that it will somehow work to our good, even if that good is eternal life, and absolutely NO good here and now beyond that HOPE, that glorious HOPE found only in Christ Jesus.
Bonhoeffer is right though, we use our possessions as security and they are no security at all. It is only Christ who can be our security. If He allows us possessions we must possess them through HIM as He allows, and all things to HIS glory, none for our own. All things in the light of HIS CROSS! Not some things, not a few things, but ALL THINGS.
Day by day, and all by the Grace of our LORD, will I learn to trust and not be anxious for tomorrow.
Bonhoeffer- 'The way to misuse our possessions is to use them as an insurance against the morrow. Anxiety is always directed to the morrow, whereas goods are in the strictest sense meant to be used only for to-day. By trying to ensure for the next day we are only creating uncertainty to-day. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. The only way to win assurance is by leaving to-morrow entirely in the hands of God and by receiving from him all we need for to-day. If instead of receiving God's gifts for to-day we worry about tomorrow, we find ourselves helpless victims of infinite anxiety. "Be not anxious for the morrow" : either that is cruel mockery for the poor and wretched, the very people Jesus is talking to who, humanly speaking, really will starve if they do not make provision to-day. Either it is an intolerable law, which men will reject with indignation: or it is the unique proclamation of the gospel of the glorious liberty of the children of God, who have a Father in heaven, a Father who has given his beloved Son. How shall not God with him also freely give us all things?'
Mat_6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (KJV)
Mat 6:34 Then do not be anxious for tomorrow. For the morrow will be anxious of itself. Sufficient to each day is its own trouble. (LITV)
Rom_8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
My thoughts-
Do we use our possession as an insurance against tomorrow? We do, don't we? We even go so far as to INSURE our possessions to they are being doubly used as an insurance against the future. We have *things* we possess which we can possible sell to give us necessary funds to provide for our own needs.
Telling a starving person not to worry about tomorrow is cruel isn't it? Shouldn't they be obsessed with worry about not starving?
I confess, I'm a worrier.
I've been riddled with anxiety since I was very young, and it's not something I seem to be able to rid myself of. Throughout my life I've been on several medications all geared to help control the anxiousness I've experienced. Anxiety has become a sickness. Anxiety can paralyze.
When I was young, anxiety wasn't much thought about but by the time I was in my mid to late twenties, anxiety it was suddenly very common and they had several drugs people were using for people with anxiety. I just found out this year at my fiftieth birthday party when my sister was reading a list of things that occurred in 1963, that valium was first used in 1963. So from the time I was born until twenty some years later anxiety as a very real problem became prevalent. The term panic attack/disorder didn't become officially recognized until 1980, I was 17 at the time, and I'd already lived intensely with anxiety since I was 10. So my experience with being OVERLY anxious is going on 40 years now. To me it's a way of life that has limited me in many ways and defined me. To tell me not to worry, to not be anxious is almost like telling me to stop breathing.
So, how do I as a Christ follower take these words about not be anxious about tomorrow? My first instinct is to say, "That's easy to say, hard to do."
Mat 6:34 Then do not be anxious for tomorrow. For the morrow will be anxious of itself. Sufficient to each day is its own trouble. (LITV)
Could we take this a step further and say we shouldn't be worried about today?
Almost all anxiety is truly future focused, focused on possibilities, focused on what may or may not happen whether it's tomorrow or five minutes from now. Anxiety as a rule dissipates when the thing you are anxious over is gone, yet tomorrow is never gone. How does one who is worried about tomorrow ever find relief from that anxiousness?
Truly this is truth- 'Sufficient to each day is its own trouble' or as the KJV says- 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. '
We do have enough worry in the here and now, don't we? Each day has its own trouble, and worrying about tomorrows troubles will avail nothing.
In fact, worry avails nothing.
This is truth--
Mat 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Mat 6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Mat 6:27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
Mat 6:28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
Mat 6:29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Mat 6:30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Mat 6:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
Mat 6:32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
Mat 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Mat 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
The ONLY way we can truly NOT worry is by believing that NOTHING matters but CHRIST JESUS our SAVIOR, and eternal life in Him.
If we TRULY believe only CHIRST matters then we have to believe that whatever our lot is, whatever we are called to endure no matter how awful, no matter how hard here and now, that it will somehow work to our good, even if that good is eternal life, and absolutely NO good here and now beyond that HOPE, that glorious HOPE found only in Christ Jesus.
Bonhoeffer is right though, we use our possessions as security and they are no security at all. It is only Christ who can be our security. If He allows us possessions we must possess them through HIM as He allows, and all things to HIS glory, none for our own. All things in the light of HIS CROSS! Not some things, not a few things, but ALL THINGS.
Day by day, and all by the Grace of our LORD, will I learn to trust and not be anxious for tomorrow.
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