25. Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26. Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Being aware of God's Perspective helps reduce worry. Stop focusing on the matters of this world and become aware of things that matter to God. I find that the greatest source of anxiety and worry is when I think of self and others, of weaknesses, inabilities, inadequacies, and all the things that can go wrong. So many people worry about things they cannot change. Future possibilities capture our anxiety more than anything. People worry about what might happen, what might go wrong. Only 8% of what could happen does.
Jesus wants us to center on God, to look at things from God's perspective giving the illustration of the birds and flowers and the value that we have in God's eyes. The main point of Jesus' illustrations wasn't how well God takes care of birds and flowers, but what a great God we have who even takes care of birds and flowers. In other words, think about the greatness of our God and focus your thoughts on Him. Worship reduces worry.
What do we think about when we think about God? Simply that God is big enough to take care of our problems and help us through. Some of the things we worry so much about don't really matter. Yes, we have economic concerns, but when we see the damage in various parts of the world and war tragedies; when we see protests exploding in many countries and natural disasters increasing more than we in the USA, we really don’t have much to complain about compared to the rest of the world.
We can't complain about the price of meat when we think of those who have no bread. We really can't complain of the price of new blue jeans when we think of the homeless and abused. In our society, when many Christian have closets full of clothes, refrigerators that are too small to contain all we want to store, comfortable beds, cars, and houses, we become anxious over the things we own and over the things we do not yet own and want more - that is sin from God's perspective.
One radio announcer was interviewing a little girl and asked her age.
“I’m 8,”
“And how old would you like to be?”
“Five.”
“Why five?
“Then I'll live longer."
We can take care of our bodies and live longer, but when we see a 5 or 8 year olds, we think they don't have any concept of life yet. Wait until you are 70 or 80, then you have perspective. God shows us, that compared to millions and billions of years, what is a mere 70 or 80 years?
If God spends so much time and energy creating and carrying for birds that are not eternal, what about the part of creation that is eternal? If birds are of value to God, then we can trust Him; Jesus never died for the birds, nor the flowers. He died for you. You can live in eternity with Him forever. You are of more value than birds and flowers.
Application: Stop focusing on the matters of this world and become aware of things that matter to God.
Prayer: Lord, I look to You in all things. Help me to see things from Your perspective knowing that You are able to supply all I need for this body and life.
