Matthew 6:25-34

25“Therefore I say to you, do not worry 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?26Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?27Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

28“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;29and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.30Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

31“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’32For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.33But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

As a college student, worry is one of the things at the forefront of our minds. Usually, the worry is about grades, test scores, or if there's enough time to study. Worry is definitely something that takes over me, and sometimes overwhelms my life. I had a friend point out to me that I do more worrying than I do anything else. But why? What causes me to worry about everything?

Well first, in our in-depth look into worry I want to know, what is worry?

Worry: ˈwərē/

verb

- give way to anxiety or unease; allow one's mind to dwell on difficulty or troubles.

noun

- a state of anxiety and uncertainty over actual or potential problems.

God tells us in Matthew 6 that we worry too much about the things we may eat, drink or the clothing we wear. In the 21st century it seems like we dive deeper into that.

We worry about if the dinner we eat will be a great feast composed of our favorite foods, or maybe if it would be composed our most hated foods. Possibly, we worry about if we will have to eat another chicken sandwich from LP because we simply don't enjoy eating anything else.

The act that sticks out the most to me is how we worry about our body, or the clothing we will wear. I'm sure most people could agree that one of the greatest worries of our society today is what we look like. Are we too fat? Too skinny? Will people make fun of us because of what we're wearing? Will we fit in?? God simply wants us to be thankful that we have clothing on our back. He clothes the grass of the field, why wouldn't he clothe us? He feeds the birds of the air, are we not of more value than they?

Now, the issue at hand. What does God say to do about our worry? How do we handle it?

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”

Philippians 4:6-7

Praise! Thanksgiving! We simply want to trust in HIM! Never in the Bible does God say "worry about it", he plainly tells us to trust in him. Why is that so hard for us? God is more powerful than we could ever imagine, and he has a plan for our lives, he knows exactly what will happen in 3 days, 7 hours, 5 minutes and 47 seconds. He knows who we will marry, where we will work, who our friends will be, he even knows the number of hairs on our head! HE has a plan. God ALWAYS has a plan. He is in complete control, and everything will work out for those who love the Lord. God knows what our future looks like, and he will not fail us. We must remember that. God will not place more on us than we can handle. He will not tempt us past what we can handle. There is a reason for everything that happens, by worrying we cannot change that outcome, but by praying we can put our trust in God that his plan is going to be the best thing for us. And it will be, he will take care of us, his ultimate plan is for us to grow closer to him, and if we find praise and thanksgiving through every worry we have than we have no choice but to grow closer to him.

Tomorrow when you start worrying about what you will wear, what grade you will get on your test, or what time you'll eat dinner, I encourage you to thank him instead. Thank him that you have clothes on your back, thank him for the opportunity to have good education, and pray that he will return the knowledge to you that you studied, put your faith in him, thank him for the food in front of you even if it isn't your favorite dish. If we put praise and thanksgiving above our worries than we will grow closer to God and live a more beneficial life by following and trusting the plans he has for us.