The Connection Between Greed and Worry

in
 

MATTHEW 6:19-34

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 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!

24 “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.

25 “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? 26 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? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 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? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

 
 

Jesus sees the world as a fundamentally good and safe place for those who trust God. In his teaching here on material possessions, he explains that there is a connection between greed and worry, because both greed and worry are based on the idea that God can’t be trusted to provide enough of what we need. Either we hoard out of fear, or we live in fear for tomorrow. Both ways lead us away from life. In fact, a focus on those things will bring darkness to our interior lives (vv. 22-23)!

So, in light of Jesus’s teaching here, what if we literally starting doing what he said?

When he told his followers to "Consider the lilies," what if he really meant it?

And when he says, "Seek first the kingdom," what if he actually wants us to do it?

What if you spent time today looking at something beautiful and ordinary that God made?

What if you the first thing you did upon waking tomorrow was to spend time in quiet prayer and reflection before God?

What if this stuff actually works?

What if Jesus doesn’t want you to live with anxiety, and what if he’s telling you what to do to combat anxiety today?

Just do it.