Stephen preached this morning on worrying, asking and receiving.
Matthew 6:25-34 gives us Jesus’s advice about worrying, telling us “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear.” Jesus emphasises that people are important to God and that He is always there to love us, protect us, guide us and provide for us.
In Matthew 7:7-12, Jesus goes on to give us ways of dealing with worry, namely, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” To combat worry, we need to talk to God, but it’s all too easy to pray and then to carry on worrying, as if our asking has no effect on the situations we’re praying about!
This tendency to fail to see the answers God provides and therefore to continue to worry is shown in Acts 12:12-16, where the church was fervently praying for Peter’s deliverance from prison but were actually so astonished when he turned up at the door that he was left there! We are often not ready to receive the answer God gives or we can misinterpret what He says or does. We can fail to see God’s miraculous answers and end up worrying again. In order to break the vicious circle of worry, however, we have to both ask God for His help and recognise the answers when they come. As the circle of worry is broken, it can be replaced by our thankfulness.