Have Faith in God; He’s on His Throne

Rush about and worry so.”

Said the sparrow to the robin,

“Friend I think that it must be,

That they have no Heavenly Father,

Such as cares for you and me.”

Matthew 6:27

My friend James Merritt, with his usual wit, says of worry,

Sometimes it is carved into our bodies by sores that we call ulcers. Sometimes it is etched into our faces by lines we call wrinkles. It may be pictured on our lips by the shape we call a frown. It can be heard in footsteps pacing back and forth across a floor late at night. Sometimes it is muffled by the silence of someone lying in bed staring at the ceiling without being able to go to sleep. (“Don’t Worry”)

These are powerful words to describe the power and impact worry can have on our lives. Jesus told us in verse 25, “Don’t worry about your life.” In verse 27 he tells us, “Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying?” Once more the answer is obvious: no. Worrying about your life is pointless, fruitless, and foolish. You cannot add a year, a month, a week, a day, or even a second by worrying. Worry may certainly affect the quality of your life, but it will not add to the length of your life. Why? Theologically, God is sovereign, and your life is in his hands. Biblically, God has numbered your days. As Quarles puts it, “God has determined both the moment of one’s birth and the moment of one’s death” (Sermon, 270). Consider the following Scriptures:

See now that I alone am he; there is no God but me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal. No one can rescue anyone from my power. (Deut 32:39)

Since a person’s days are determined and the number of his months depends on you, and since you have set limits he cannot pass . . . (Job 14:5)

The Lord brings death and gives life; he sends some down to Sheol, and he raises others up. (1 Sam 2:6)

There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven: a time to give birth and a time to die. (Eccl 3:1-2)

, make me aware of my end and the number of my days so that I will know how short-lived I am. (Ps 39:4)

Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began. (Ps 139:16)

Quarles summarizes the teaching well: “A person’s survival depends on divine sovereignty, not human anxiety” (Sermon, 271). God has sovereignly and particularly mapped out our lives from beginning to end. There are no accidents in his plan. He knows who we are. He knows what we need. He loves and cares for each one of us individually. He will be sure to give us everything we need to fulfill his purpose and will in our lives. We will receive all that is necessary for his glory and our good. I love the way Sinclair Ferguson puts it:

Your life is in the hands of your Father. He has designed it. He knows the end of it from the beginning. He plans each step of the way to fulfil his purpose for you and through you. You will have all you need to fulfil that purpose, and when that is accomplished, you will be taken home to be with him. Why worry when he has your life in his hands? Your worry is a sign that you do not adequately know him, or that you do not trust him, or have not yet yielded to him as you ought.

It is only when we want to take our lives out of the Father’s hands and have them under our own control that we find ourselves gripped with anxiety. The secret of freedom from anxiety is freedom from ourselves and abandonment of our own plans. But that spirit emerges in our lives only when our minds are filled with the knowledge that our Father can be trusted implicitly to supply everything we need. (Sermon, 144)

Matthew 6:28-30

Americans are clothes and fashion conscious. The U.S. apparel industry today is a twelve-billion-dollar business. The average American family spends $1,700 on clothes annually (Johnson, “Real Cost”). While that is only 3.5 percent of a family’s expenses, Emma Johnson makes the point, “What is significant is whether that money is spent on need or waste. The answer is, largely, waste” (ibid.).

The situation was much different for first-century Hebrews living in Israel. There was little or no money to waste. Like the majority of the world’s population today, people owned little more than what was on their backs. Like my friend “Pastor Sam,” who lives in South Sudan, they owned one or two sets of clothes and a pair of sandals. That is all. Still, it appears many struggle to escape the worry of apparel. So Jesus provides a time of Q & A, where he both asks the questions and provides the answers. He asks, “And why do you worry about clothes?” To this question, he directs our attention to how the wildflowers of the field grow. They simply and naturally grow. He continues, “They don’t labor or spin thread.” Carson says, “Watch those flowers grow: They do not work to earn or buy their beauty. They grow” (Sermon, 91). Jesus continues in verse 29, “Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these.” In the time of Jesus, King Solomon’s royal and regal opulence and splendor were proverbial. Jesus then concludes his argument in verse 30: “If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field,” and it is, “which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith?” The answer is, of course, he will.

The last four words of verse 30 are intended as a healing dagger in the heart of the disciples: “You of little faith.” Is your faith in the sovereign and omnipotent God small and puny? Interestingly, the adjective “little faith” (Gk. oligopistos) appears four times in Matthew. The disciples showed little faith that Jesus could control the storm (8:26), that they (Peter) could walk on water (14:31), and that Jesus could miraculously provide bread for them to eat (16:8) (Quarles, Sermon, 274). Worry is energized by little faith. Small faith equals anxiety and worry. It is, Quarles notes, “an expression of doubt in God’s knowledge, strength, or compassion” (ibid., 275).

Call it what you want: tension, anxiety, worry. But we need to call it what God calls it: unbelief. At its core worry is practical atheism, practical deism, or practical finite theism (Mounce, Matthew, 61). Either we think God is not there (atheism), that he is there but does not care (deism), or that he is there but is not powerful enough to be counted on (finite theism). George Müller (1805–1898), the great prayer warrior, counters all of this when he says, “My Lord is not limited. He knows my present situation, and he can supply all I need. Rather than causing anxiety, living by faith in God alone keeps my heart in perfect peace” (Autobiography, 41–42, emphasis added).

Matthew 6:31-32

Worry is foolish on so many levels. Pastor James Merritt says, “Worrying never solved a problem, never dried a tear, never lifted a burden, never removed an obstacle. It never made bad things good, or good things better” (“Don’t Worry”). Jesus knew this better than any person who ever lived. So once again he is direct and to the point. “So don’t worry . . .” To be precise, do not worry about what you will eat or what you will drink or what you will wear (v. 31). This worry puts you in the camp of unbelievers. It puts you on the level of pagans. “Gentiles [pagans, unbelievers] eagerly seek all these things.” They have a laser-beam focus on what they eat, drink, and wear. Jesus equates worry with idolatry. What I eat, drink, and wear becomes my primary concern and my first priority. These become things I “eagerly seek.” These become my gods, which makes them idols.

Think for a moment how foolish worry is. It borders on the absurd. These false gods cannot talk, hear, see, or do a thing. They are deaf, mute, blind, and impotent. In stark and startling contrast, the one true and living God is a talking God, he hears everything, he sees everything, and he can do anything. We now are running the risk of both a “little faith” and a “misplaced faith.”

Jesus concludes verse 32 with a simple but comforting truth: “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” Jesus says “your heavenly Father” because this means the sovereign God of heaven is my Father. I need to remind myself daily of this wonderful truth. He sees me and knows me in the most tender and intimate way through Jesus my Lord. What is more, my heavenly Father “knows.” He is not ignorant or indifferent to my needs in this life. He knows. He sees. He cares. He not only knows us, but he also knows our needs. My heavenly Father knows precisely and exactly what I need. He knows what I want, but his attention is on what I need. The promise penned by the apostle Paul in Philippians 4:19 comes calling with joy unspeakable, “My God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” John MacArthur is right: “When we think like the world, and crave like the world we will worry like the world. . . . The faithful, trusting, and reasonable Christian is anxious for nothing” (Matthew, 426).

Matthew 6:33-34

In John Piper’s excellent study of Matthew 6:24-34, he highlights eight reasons not to be anxious:

The last two items on Piper’s list summarize well what we find in Matthew 6:33-34. God knows our needs and will take care of them so we do not have to worry.

Jesus again uses a present imperative as a word of command calling for continuous action. “But [constantly] seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.” Seek God’s rule and reign above all other things in your life. Seek his righteousness, a daily and practical righteousness that is unveiled for us in the Sermon on the Mount. Do this, and life, drink, food, and clothes will be provided for you. As you seek God with your life, he will take care of you. As Spurgeon puts it, “Seek God first, and the rest will follow in due course” (Exposition, 40). When you seek God’s kingdom as your ultimate passion and priority in life, “he works for you and provides all your needs” (Piper, “Don’t Be Anxious”). The cure for worry is found in three simple words: first things first. Stop worrying and start seeking. Stop worrying about your little kingdom, and start seeking God’s big kingdom first. Nothing about this is passive or indifferent. Be active and be aggressive. Go for God and his kingdom with all you have, and watch him take care of everything you need.

Verse 34 concludes the paragraph. “Therefore,” in light of this promise in verse 33, “don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself.” God has called us to live today for him. Focus on today, and watch anxiety disappear. If tomorrow comes, be assured “each day has enough trouble of its own.” Carson says it perfectly:

Sermon, 95)

James O. Fraser is one of my missionary heroes. I love his thoughts on anxiety and worry. They provide a marvelous and helpful word to our study. He says,

True faith glories in the present tense, and does not trouble itself about the future. God’s promises are in the present tense, and are quite secure enough to set our hearts at rest. Their full outworking is often in the future, but God’s word is as good as His bond and we need have no anxiety. (Quoted in Newell, Expect Great Things, 90)

The God who took care of our greatest problem at the cross can certainly be trusted to take care of anything else we may face daily in this life. He has secured our eternity. He will see you through today. No need to worry. God is on his throne, and you are in his hands.