“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life…instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.” ~Luke 12:22-31
Anxiety is the fruit of an assumed god-like status by we mere creatures. When we are faced with the reality that all of the things we have tried to control, as if we are God, are actually out of our control, we become anxious. In Luke 12 God offers us great news: there is a much sweeter fruit than anxiety, the fruit of trust in a sovereign, good God. Which would you rather embrace? Anxiety or rest?
In this culture, however, we run against the grain of rest in God’s provision. We prize the intellect, praise the talented, and just plain get things done. We are deceptively “good” at control, at least in human terms. Yet Jesus is offering here that we are so naive, living with blinders on. What appears like control to us is more accurately a manipulation of circumstances to meet our own needs. But we’re building a house on sand, a house that will collapse when circumstances change. We desperately need an anchor for our souls that transcends the variables of life.
We need the God who “feeds the ravens,” and adorns even “the lilies of the field.” We need the sovereign king of the universe who “knows what we need,” and even “numbers the hairs on our head.” In God the transcendent and the immanent kiss. God’s power and might are uniquely at his children’s disposal because he cares for them. He is almighty but not afar off. He is tender but not weak. This is the relationship we need if we are going to be okay when we get wounded. Wounds only go so deep when our souls are anchored in God. May we trust him more everyday!
Kyle