Why Do I Worry All the Time?

Here in Midcoast Maine, an alarming real estate phenomenon threatens to deepen my commitment to grumpiness. Storage facilities are springing up in every neighborhood and along every country road. While I celebrate and applaud the entrepreneurial spirit that sees a need in the market and rushes to fill it, I lament the need. (And I acknowledge that those little boxes have a legitimate role for those who need temporary storage of household items!)

How in the world are we filling so many storage containers with unimportant things that can live in a locked box on someone else’s property? Clearly, as a population, as a culture, we are committed to the art of accumulation. But this is nothing new! We’ve just refined the practice.

Jesus addressed the human tendency to hoard in his Sermon on the Mount:

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.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

Our possessions become a heart issue when a good thing starts to become an ultimate thing.¹ When the accumulation and maintenance of our possessions occupy our time and our minds more than the formation of our character, we’re heavily invested in the kingdom of moth and rust. When the people in our lives don’t show up on our calendars or in our homes because we’re busy with our stuff, we reveal the true state of our hearts, lost in self-worship!

When the accumulation and maintenance of our possessions occupy our time and our minds more than the formation of our character, we’re heavily invested in the kingdom of moth and rust.

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How Will the Light Shine Through?

Jesus differentiated between two kinds of treasures in verses 19-21: earthly and heavenly; temporal and eternal. In verses 22-23, he describes two kinds of eyes:

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23)

A “bad” eye is on the lookout for more, always comparing, always shopping, always seeking entertainment or the next conquest. The light-giving, healthy eye reveals a heart fixed on the value of eternal treasures and sees Christ as its highest treasure. A “whole body… full of light” is well-equipped to impact the world—just as Jesus commanded earlier in his Sermon on the Mount. (“You are the light of the world…”—Matthew 5:14)

Driving by the neat rows of storage units, I always feel my stomach clench just a little bit, imagining how I would feel if I had to deal with paying rent, sorting through the contents, or simply being responsible for so much excess stuff. I would feel as if the possessions had begun to own me. I would feel as if they had become my master, and I don’t have room for that kind of servitude:

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 6:24)

The pattern that started in the Garden of Eden is almost unavoidable in the 21st century: See/Want/Take. Pop-up ads, social media, and articulate influencers with their convincing endorsements make sure we see. Our idol factory hearts take it from there, and wanting becomes taking thanks to our affluence or our debt tolerance.

The Natural Path to Anxiety

Is it any wonder that three times in the next section Jesus says, “Therefore, don’t be anxious…”? (6:25, 31, 34) When I have fixed my gaze on what I “will eat or what [I] will drink, [or] what [I] will put on,” I have reduced my life to pure consumerism. Like Israel in the wilderness, having witnessed God’s deliverance from Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea, we doubt God’s ability to provide for our needs—or our “manna” gets stuck in our throats as we complain loudly about all the “extras” we’re missing out on.

When we act like unbelievers, we are subject to the same anxiety that plagues them. Forgetting that our “heavenly Father knows that [we] need” his care, we seek first “all these things,” and “the kingdom of God and his righteousness” is left to the varsity-level Christians.

Trouble “sufficient for the day” is guaranteed. (6:34) Jesus also tells us to pray for daily bread and blesses the meek who receive what’s been given. While we’re not promised freedom from trouble, by grace we can be free from worry if we make the choice to “cast all our anxieties on him” trusting that he cares for us, that he is good and will provide for us even more than he cares for the birds of the air or the flowers of the field.

Praying Together

Thank you for knowing our hearts, for remembering that “we are dust.” We do have legitimate needs for provision and safety, and so we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Help us to fix our eyes on gratitude for the given and to resist that cultural drive to have more and more and MORE! Teach us the wisdom of trusting our infinitely good Father who knows what we need and is committed to our good.

Let’s continue this conversation:

• Do you see the connection between the Lord’s prayer and this final section of Matthew 6?
• What treasures are you most tempted to “lay up for yourself?” How, practically, can you train your heart for a better freedom?
• What’s consuming time and energy in your life? Have you noticed the connection between the treasures and masters we choose and our tendency to worry?

Holding You in the Light,

It’s no surprise that Jesus addresses anxiety in the same breath as the way we relate to our possessions. When we trust him to provide, worry need not be a constant companion for the believer.

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1. This is a reference to Tim Keller’s definition of idolatry: “Idolatry happens when we take good things and make them ultimate things.“
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This is part six of a series about Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. You’ll find part one on the Beatitudes HERE, and part two on Salt and Light HERE. In week three, in light of Jesus’s warning to teachers, we wondered what motivates teachers to take on the heavy responsibility of communicating the truth. Then, in part four, Jesus answers the question, “What does it really mean to be righteous?” Part five carries Jesus’s warning to believers about the subtle pull of public displays of righteousness.

I invite you to join me each Sunday for the next few weeks as we sit under the teaching of Jesus together and consider how his words and his life should be impacting the way we live, work, think, and pray.

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