Luke 12:22-34: Do Not Be Anxious

There are two hands with which we hold onto the things of this life, there is the hand of greed and the hand of worry. The hand of greed holds onto things out of a desire for them believing the lie that they need them in order to be happy; the hand of worry holds onto things out of a desire to survive thinking that it needs these things for life. Some of us pursue the things of this life because of our insatiable desires; some of us pursue things because of our illogical fear. The iron grip of the hand of desire is loosened by finding our greater treasure in God as we are wooed by a greater affection for Him than the things of this life; the iron grip of anxiety is loosened by the knowledge of His fatherly care for us and the rich provisions laid up for us in eternity. We are in a section where Jesus is addressing our attitudes towards the things of this life. He has given us the parable of the rich fool to warn us off the desire for things that lead us away from God. He has addressed our greed, and now Jesus will address the other instinct that drives us to obsess over the things of this life, our worry, our anxiety, our fear, 12:22-34. Jesus has told us to be rich towards God v21, not only does our greed tremble at the thought of not having what it wants, our worry under the disguise of legitimate concern for security rushes in to talk us off the ledge of radical generosity. Jesus is training His disciples for a life of seeking God’s kingdom, a life of joyful and faith-filled generosity that is able to spend itself in the assurance...

Read More

Source