Matthew 6:25-34
Jesus Says Do Not Worry
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 than food, and the body more 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? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Worry can be a vicious cycle, feeding on itself and making it hard to think clearly...It's a common human experience and it happens quite often to almost all of us...Worry often focuses on the future or dwells on the past...Practice mindfulness techniques to bring your attention back to the present moment helps one when the are worrying...One's focus on the present moment can help reduce anxiety and worry...
Jesus teaches us that we cannot add a single hour to our lives with worrying...He said: "And why do you worry about clothes?...See how the flowers of the field grow...They do not labor or spin...Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these...If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?...So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ...For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them...But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well...Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself...Each day has enough trouble of its own."...
Writer and Monk Thomas Merton tells us his reasons why we should try not to worry...He believed that worry begat more worries...As best we can we should try to accept our sufferings...He said: “The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt...The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers most.”...“Do not depend on the hope of results...You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect...As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself...You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people...In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.”...