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| Source: http://blogs.tallahassee.com |
Have you ever read something a million times, and then one day, you read it again and your understanding of it profoundly deepens?
This happened to me earlier this summer with a familiar passage of scripture, and I am still processing its implications for my life, and what it means for so many of us who struggle with fear and anxiety.
Let me back up to explain...
This past May I studied The Sermon on the Mount bible study by Jen Wilkin. Each week, I read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7), in addition to focusing on a small section of Matthew and working through a series of questions. Over the course of the study, I read the Sermon on the Mount ten times or more.
Like most of you, I went into this bible study already very familiar with the Sermon on the Mount. I could tell you about the lilies of the field, logs and specks, salt and light...you get the idea. So when I reread the "anxious" passage (see below) nothing particularly new jumped out at me.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?...Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" --Matthew 6:25-30
In fact, it is a passage I have thought of often--and consider knowing well--as I watch the birds outside my kitchen window eating at the feeder, and it has long spoken to me in my personal journey with anxiety.
But then something powerfully shifted when I read it yet another time through this study.
I suddenly understood how this passage was directly connected to the passage which comes immediately before it--a passage in which Jesus asks His listeners to consider where their treasure is, and exhorts them (and us) to only serve one master:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also....No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." Matthew 6:19-21, 24I can recall my pastor from my college days, telling us that whenever we come across the word "therefore" in the scriptures, we ought to stop and ask ourselves, what is that "therefore" there for? In other words, we ought to be in the habit of scanning the previous verses to discover what the author is referring to, or trying to sum up, when he pens the word "therefore."
And so, when piecing it all together, the meaning of this familiar passage suddenly materialized for me in a profound way.
I see now that Jesus' discourse about anxiety and worry have a much deeper target than merely the level of our thoughts, our food, or our clothes. Instead, Jesus goes way deeper and targets the motives of our heart.
Jesus asks us: Where does your treasure in life lie?
In what (or whom) are you putting your hope in?
What master are you serving with your time, talent, and money?
Ok, he reasons. Now with all that out on the table, let's talk about your anxious thoughts and feelings and how I care for you in ways you will never be able to fathom.
Friend, the questions Jesus poses are not easy questions.
Even a few months after completing the Sermon on the Mount bible study, I am still pondering this lesson in my mind and heart. And, per God's perfect timing, our pastor preached on this passage of scripture, touching upon these very themes (see sermon podcast May 26, 2019). Love when that happens!
In fact, I am still talking to God about what this means for my life, and probably will for some time!
And I'd love to welcome you into that conversation regarding your own heart, too, dear friend.
Are you like me and have never truly pieced together the direct relationship between anxiety and what your heart is truly treasuring?
Have you overlooked the reality that serving something--anything--other than God can profoundly impact the peace of your thoughts and feelings?
I know in my life, when I am serving myself or chasing after external validators instead of God for my self-worth, I become anxious.
When I am investing in earthly things--things that are temporal and not close to the heart of God--I feel empty and restless.
Will you join me, dear friend, as we ask God to discern the motives of our hearts, and confess our anxious thoughts to Him? May He bless us with His wisdom and grace, as we seek to faithfully serve the right master--God Himself--and experience the peaceful blessings that ensue!
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