Daily Devotional By Desiringgod Ministry – John Piper Ministry 14 November 2024 | Topic: See Your Way Through Worry
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See Your Way Through Worry
Four Sights for Anxious Minds
Godward Life | Minneapolis
- Resource by Marshall Segal
- Scripture: Matthew 6:25–34 Topic: Fear & Anxiety
As I prepared for this message on Matthew 6:25–34, I found myself thinking about a story that Jesus tells in Matthew 13: the parable of the sower.
Over the course of my life, I’ve read that story and typically responded by giving thanks: the seed of my faith could have fallen on the path. I might have heard the gospel and seemed to believe but then immediately fallen away in my teenage years. But God. Or my seed could have fallen on the rocks. My seeming faith might have sprung up and blossomed for a few years, maybe through college, only to be wrecked by a shattered dream, an unexpected illness, the loss of a friend or family member. But God. My seed could have landed among the thorns. “The cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things” might have slowly strangled any initial interest I had in Jesus. But God. Praise God that my seed seems to have found good soil — may it always be so.
That’s not, however, how I was thinking about the parable these last few weeks. No, now that I’ve gotten a little older and watched a growing number of people I love walk away from Jesus (some on the path, some on the rocks, some among thorns), I was thinking about the seeds I’ve loved and lost — people really, really close to me. I was thinking about them because that word cares, “the cares of the world,” could be translated anxieties — it’s the same Greek root in our passage, in Matthew 6:25: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life . . .” And so, when we come to a conference on anxiety and a message on anxiety, we’re not just talking about “how to address our current mental-health crisis” — no, we’re talking about rescuing people from falling away from Jesus. The kind of anxiety he’s talking about here is a thorn that, if left alone, can destroy a person (like people I love) — and I want you to be free from it.
Disproportionate Preoccupation
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? (Matthew 6:25)
Why would Jesus start there, with that question? “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Of course life is more than food, Jesus. We have homes, busy schedules, friends and family, trials of various kinds. Of course life is more than meals. And of course the body is more than clothing. We have a heart and lungs and kidneys. We have our sense of smell and taste and touch. We have white blood cells that assemble to fight off and destroy bacteria and viruses. Of course the body is more than clothing. So why ask the question? To remind us that the thing causing us the most anxiety right now isn’t the only reality in our lives.
Anxiety does this to us, doesn’t it? A single anxiety, even a small one, can suddenly consume almost all our attention and energy. I’m experiencing this right now, because a few weeks ago our dishwasher leaked overnight and ruined our flooring (or at least twenty square feet of it in front of our sink), and so our kitchen has been upended for a month now (with no end in sight). There have been moments, hours, even a couple days when those twenty square feet have felt like our whole life. Our house has two thousand square feet — 1,980 functional square feet — and yet those twenty have dominated my thoughts at times. Because anxiety does that. Anxiety can make it seem like one worry is our whole life — the difficult relationship is our life, the long job search is our life, the wait for a spouse is our life, the battle with chronic pain or illness is our life. It’s not! Isn’t life more than food — or whatever you’re most worried about right now?
Let me remind you that you were made by the God who formed Mount Everest, carved out the Pacific Ocean, and tied Orion’s belt around his waist. This God made you not to enlist and enslave you, but so that you might know him, enjoy him, and glorify him — and yet you refused him. You thought you knew better than God, and so you looked at his infinite, all-satisfying glory and the empty, short-lived offer of sin, and you chose sin. I chose sin. And did he wipe us out and throw us into hell? No, he chose to enter into the world that hated him and save it from the inside. The Father sent the Son to live like the anxious, among the anxious — yet without sin. And then bearing all our endless worrying, he carried the cross that killed him, and he died for the anxious. Three days later, he rose from the dead — he really rose, he’s not dead anymore — and he now sits in heaven, right now, where he’s praying for your anxious heart, and one day soon he’s coming back to get you.
And you’re worried about food? About clothing? About twenty square feet of kitchen flooring? Life is more than that pressing anxiety, whatever it is — so much more.
In these next verses, Jesus draws us further into this wondrous reality, this spiritual reality. And what you see here and throughout this passage is that the peace we need — and today as much as ever — begins in the eyes.
Peace Starts in the Eyes
I, like many others, see Matthew 6:19–34 as one unit within the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus talks first about treasures, then the eyes, then masters, and last about anxieties, and I believe he’s woven them all together here (and I’ll circle back to show you how in a few minutes). But I first want to show you that the battle begins in the eyes. It starts in verses 22–23:
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!
And then, in verses 25–34, when Jesus turns to talk about anxiety, he says, “Look at the birds. . . . Look at the lilies. . . . Look first to God and his kingdom. . . .” The battle against ungodly anxiety, it seems, is fought between our cornea and our optic nerve (spiritually speaking). The battle is in the eye.
I think this is one of the things Jonathan Haidt sees in his book The Anxious Generation. He, and many others, see how mental health has deteriorated in our day (especially among young people) because of how we use our eyes, in particular how much of our eyes we give to our phones and screens. I think he’s right. Some of you are as anxious as you are because you’ve soaked yourself in social media, meditating on it day and night. This isn’t to say that social media itself is bad, or that good, spiritual, eternal things aren’t happening there — I believe they are (I work for a global, mostly digital publishing ministry, so you know I believe it). But some of you dove into social media headfirst, maybe years ago now, and you’ve never found the surface again. You’re drowning there, spiritually, but you don’t know it yet. Your soul is gasping — that’s what this anxiety is — but you just keep holding it underwater (scroll after scroll after scroll).
Some of you — certainly not all of you, but some of you — came in here anxious, and you need to hear Matthew 5:29 (just a chapter earlier): “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” That’s not just about lust — it’s about anything that causes you to sin. If technology is causing you to sin — to envy, to compare, to worry, to covet (social media is literally built to do those things, by the way; that’s how these companies make their money) — if that app or streaming service or YouTube channel is causing you to be anxious, then tear it out and throw it away. It’s not worth it, no matter how much good might happen there.
But Jesus doesn’t tell us what not to look at. I love this about these verses. No, he guides our eyes to places and habits that breed peace and joy. He doesn’t just say, “Don’t be anxious! Just stop it! Stop worrying about that.” It doesn’t work. It’s not enough to tell the eyes what not to look it or to just tell the heart not to worry. Our souls need somewhere to look, positively, somewhere to find life and courage. That’s what Jesus does: he tells us to look here and here and here, three places. So let’s look together.
1. Eyes on the Birds
First, set your eyes on the birds. Matthew 6:26–27:
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? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
What does Jesus want them to see in the birds? It’s not about feathers and beaks and brilliant colors — not here, anyway; that’s another sermon. No, he wants them to see the wonder that these little, harmless, defenseless creatures are still alive.
An average blue jay, for instance, weighs three ounces and can carry just five acorns at a time — two to three in their throat pouch, one in their mouth, and one on the tip of their beak. And they can live for ten or even twenty years that way! How? Scientists, of course, have all their sophisticated ways of explaining this through “evolution” and “survival of the fittest,” but Jesus tells us how right here: “Your heavenly Father feeds them.” That’s a biology textbook in just five words. I’ll give you three: God feeds them. Those five acorns came from the hand of God — and the next five, and the next five. And two thousand years later, we still have birds. Can you believe that? They haven’t gone extinct because he hasn’t run out of acorns.
“The one who feeds every bird on earth, billions and billions of birds, claims and cares for you.”
But he doesn’t just say “God feeds them,” does he? No (and this is why we need five words), he says, “Your heavenly Father feeds them.” The one who feeds every bird on earth, billions and billions of birds, claims and cares for you. He watches over every acorn, and he watches over you. And if you ask him for bread, he won’t give you a stone. If you ask him for a fish, he won’t give you a serpent. He’s a really good Father, and through faith in Christ, he’s your Father.
It’s amazing, isn’t it, that we have an easier time being convinced that God feeds fifty billion birds than we do believing he’ll take care of our problems? Andy touched on this yesterday morning, when God brought Job to repentance by showing him goats, lions, and ostriches (another bird). Why did he go there? Because we often see his wisdom, sovereignty, and goodness more quickly in creation than we do in our circumstances.
And this God doesn’t only look after blue jays. Look at the next verses.
2. Eyes on the Lilies
First, set your eyes on the birds. Second, set your eyes on the fields. Matthew 6:28–30:
And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 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?
Why birds and flowers? Jesus, give me a book or a podcast or a free online course. Tell me about someone I should follow on YouTube or Instagram. I’m plagued with anxiety — how are lilies going to make any difference? They only bloom for ten or twelve days each spring.
That’s actually the point. Lilies are stunningly beautiful — breathtaking when you stop to really look (we have some soft pink ones in our front yard). But their beauty is brief, “alive today and tomorrow gone.” Sometimes faster, if the squirrels get to them. And yet God bends down to clothe them. He chooses their colors and measures their petals and arranges them in massive bouquets all over North America, Europe, and eastern Asia. If he pays attention to these tiny ten-day blooms, won’t he clothe you too? Won’t he make sure you have everything you need for the few years you’re needed here, for this brief spring before glory?
I was thinking about these verses when our family went to an apple orchard a couple weeks ago — they had sunflowers and birds (and llamas, actually), so we were solidly in a Matthew 6 world. We rode the hayride out to the lines of trees. Apple trees are the strangest thing. If you can’t remember how strange they are, take a four-year-old or a two-year-old (like we did), and they’ll remind you. Our kids ran up and down the rows, grabbing as many as they could (despite us telling them, over and over, that we had to actually pay for what we picked). And they, of course, kept grabbing the small, mutilated, worm-eaten ones. (Why do kids do that?)
Now, I could tie the apples to the birds and say that this is one of the ways God feeds us and every other creature on earth: by hanging these bright, juicy, unbelievably sweet spheres on the ends of trees. What mercy, what creativity that he would feed us like that (it could have been all kale and spinach and cauliflower). But that’s not where my mind was. No, I was watching the four-year-old and the two-year-old. They weren’t worried at all about who was going to pay for these apples. They weren’t worried about where dinner was going to come from later that day. They weren’t running around grabbing up apples because they were anxious; no, they were running around giggling, free to enjoy the orchard. Why? Because they knew they had a father and mother who care for them. And they feel that way about me even though I don’t feed any birds (literally, our bird feeder has been empty for weeks). The Father who cares for you feeds all the birds — and the squirrels, and the lions and elephants and whales. And he loves you. He’s going to take care of you too.
Before I turn to the third point, as a quick aside, I want to briefly commend the place of good counseling in the battle against anxiety and despair. So much more could be said here, but let me just say to those struggling with anxiety of various kinds: If we can learn and take this much spiritual courage from sparrows and lilies, why would we despise all that we might learn by studying people?
Science and counseling, when subjected to God’s special revelation in his word, can be a wonderful gift (I’ve tasted this very personally through our church, and Faye and I have benefited enormously from professional counseling). Counseling can, of course, be a curse, when it’s pitted against Scripture — when a counselor scoffs at Matthew 6:19–34 and acts like we know so much more now than Jesus knew. But if a counselor loves Matthew 6:19–34, and Philippians 4:6–7, and 1 Peter 5:6–7, and they’ve spent decades studying how people think and feel and worry and relate to one another, they’ll probably have helpful things to contribute to your battle. So, consider the birds and the lilies, and perhaps the perspective of a good biblical counselor.
3. Eyes on the Kingdom
Alright, eyes on the birds, eyes on the fields — and now, third, set your eyes on the kingdom. Matthew 6:31–33:
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. . . . But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
He knows what you need. Do you know that he knows? It might feel like he’s forgotten sometimes, like he’s too busy putting out wildfires in California or watching the war in Gaza. As I speak, Hurricane Helene is devastating Florida and the Carolinas (Lord, have mercy). How could he possibly have time to think about my bills or my homework or my fight with my friend?
He’s God! He’s never overwhelmed or distracted. He knows what you need, and he promises in Philippians 4:19, “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Either Paul is a liar or you’re really going to be okay. Every need will be supplied — and not just barely, but according to his riches in glory. He’s filling your tiny thimbles of need with an ocean, with a body of water bigger than an ocean (we just don’t have a name for it yet).
Therefore, seek first the kingdom. Set your eyes on God and all the things he’s doing in the world to glorify his name — and be a little more anxious about that. “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do” — so this applies to absolutely everything — “do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). We get so worked up over our hardships, our relationships, our responsibilities and deficiencies, that we forget that God’s glory is breaking into our dark and broken world — and that it’s happening through us (through our faith, our worship, our fellowship, our eating and drinking, our witness). How much might our mental health improve if we were more focused on the most important thing happening in the universe?
Pray Then Like This
A first step in this direction — a modest and massive step — is to pray for these kinds of eyes. And I point to prayer because Jesus does, just a few verses earlier (Matthew 6:7–13):
And when you pray [listen to the echoes in chapter 6], do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
One reason we’re as anxious as we are is that when trials come, we try absolutely everything but prayer — we worry, we wrestle, we forecast and strategize, we even talk to other people, but we bypass the most productive thing God has given us to do in any situation. This is Philippians 4:6–7:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
So, this is a battle we fight with our eyes and our knees, and often our knees before our eyes, because only God can make us see.
Two Masters and Treasures
Before I close, I want to draw your attention to a word I’ve flown right over until now but that I think is massively important and surprisingly practical — and it’s the very first word in the passage: “Therefore . . .” (Matthew 6:25).
I believe this word ties everything we just read about anxiety back to Matthew 6:19–24 about two kinds of treasure and two kinds of masters. “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life . . .” Jesus didn’t talk about money and worldliness for a few verses and then decide to totally change subjects and talk about mental health. No, he’s telling us that the roots of this kind of anxiety and this kind of peace are in what we treasure — in what we want most and spend the most of our time, money, and attention to have. Matthew 6:19–21:
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.
The battle against anxiety is a battle of the eyes, we learn, because it’s a battle over treasure. And for as much as Jonathan Haidt sees, I think this is what he misses. He diagnoses our symptoms well enough, and he has some insightful suggestions for raising healthier children in a technological age, but he hasn’t found the real root yet. When it comes to anxiety, our abuse of phones and social media is just a symptom and an aggravator. The studies don’t go deep enough. At root, our mental health crisis in America is not about technology, but about treasure.
Worries and Worldliness
J.C. Ryle, the English preacher, sounded this warning in the 1850s, more than a hundred and fifty years before the iPhone and twenty years before the telephone (so let’s be clear: our generation isn’t the first or only anxious generation). He says,
There are thousands in our churches uncomfortable, ill at ease and dissatisfied with themselves, and they hardly know why [sounds like a mental-health crisis]. The reason is revealed right here [in Matthew 6].
He goes on,
[Worldliness] is a subtle, misleading, apparently reasonable enemy. It seems so innocent to pay close attention to our business! It seems so harmless to seek our happiness in this world, so long as we keep clear of open sins! Yet here is a rock on which many make shipwreck to all eternity. They lay up treasures on earth, and forget to lay up treasures in heaven. . . . Oh! Let us all beware that we do not sink into hell by paying excessive attention to lawful things. Open transgression of God’s law slays its thousands, but worldliness its tens of thousands. (Matthew, 65, 66)
They’re anxious because they’re trying so hard to be happy in this world. They’ve called themselves Christians, but they spend most of their time worrying about worldly stuff. And so, they’re “uncomfortable,” “ill at ease,” “dissatisfied” — and they hardly know why. I wonder if that’s any of you. If so, hear the invitation again:
Come, everyone who thirsts [everyone feeling anxious and restless],
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live. (Isaiah 55:1–3)
In short, find a better treasure. Do you know him? Do you still run to him morning after morning?
“One reason we’re as anxious as we are is that when trials come, we try absolutely everything but prayer.”
Anxiety withers and dies at a table like this. So come and eat. You don’t have to pay for a membership or a subscription. Because Jesus paid it all for you, this table is free for you. Do whatever it takes to get the eyes of your heart more fully on this God and his kingdom, on all that he’s doing to glorify his name in your life and your church and around the world. Most of all, though, get your eyes on him — in his word, in prayer, in fellowship with one another. Keep looking, keep drinking, keep feasting.
Eyes on Today
Jesus directs our eyes one last place. Set your eyes on the birds. Set your eyes on the fields. Set your eyes on God and his kingdom. And finally, set your eyes on today. Matthew 6:34:
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
I started by mentioning that anxiety has a tendency to make a single worry seem like our whole life. Anxiety also has a tendency of making us miss today. It keeps us looking past today’s mercies to tomorrow’s troubles — and there’s so much mercy to see in these 24 hours. Yes, if you want to have everything you’ll need tomorrow right now, you’ll be endlessly disappointed and frustrated; you’ll be anxious and probably depressed. But you don’t need what you’ll need tomorrow — not yet. You need what you need today. And if you’re still alive and you’re still believing in Jesus, you have it (isn’t that amazing!). And if you die, you’ll have less to worry about than ever before. You’ll have nothing to worry about ever again. You’ll never be tempted to be anxious — can you imagine?
So don’t let tomorrow’s troubles rob you of today’s mercies. Pray for eyes to see the dozens of ways your Father is caring for you right now — even now.
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