Taking God’s Work Out of His Hands

In Matthew 7 we find our Lord’s teaching that anxiety over all the things we need in life is needless, and far from doing us any good, is harmful.  Jesus affirms that His followers are very precious to God, and will be provided for.  He concludes by saying that since our heavenly Father knows and has promised to give us all that we need, “Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 5:34).  Worry and fear about the future only makes our present condition more difficult to bear, and is very dishonoring to God.  Thomas Manton really hit the nail on the head when he said that fears about the future, “Oppress, and so both overwhelm ourselves and take God’s work out of His hands.”  Fear proclaims to others that we really do not believe God will provide for us as He has promised.  The whole burden for the future is on our shoulders.  From cover to cover the Bible teaches that worry and fear are the bitter fruit of unbelief.  The cure for anxiety is faith, the heart of which is dependence on God as the all-sufficient source of all that we need.  I’ll give Manton the final word, “It is not only our privilege that we may, but our duty that we must, disburden ourselves of theses distrustful fears and cares and sorrows.”