Daily Devotional | Don’t Worry

During the Holocaust, Corrie ten Boom and her family helped many Jewish people escape the Nazis. We can only imagine the anxiety she experienced. Later she wrote, “Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength—carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.”

In Matthew 6, Jesus instructed His followers: “Do not worry about your life.” He listed common human concerns: food, water, clothing. The people, gathered to hear His teaching, were well-acquainted with work and worry. Their days were consumed by meeting their basic physical needs.

Jesus gave two examples of God’s great care. The first was the “birds of the air” (v. 26). Jesus explained that birds do not work as humans do— sowing, reaping, storing away grain. Instead, they do what God created them to do: find food and build nests. Yet God provides for them. Jesus followed up with a rhetorical question: “Are you not much more valuable than they?” The implied answer, of course, is yes. God provides food for His children as well.

Jesus then pointed to the “flowers of the field” (v. 28). They do not work at all, yet they are extravagantly beautiful, even more beautiful than Solomon, the most excessively adorned king. These flowers decorate the ephemeral dried grass, which is burned up for fuel (v. 30). Jesus told His followers that God will dress them with even greater care.

Jesus urges us to “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (v. 33). The word seek here does not mean “search for” but rather “pursue.” When we love God with our whole being, He promises to provide, and we need not worry.

Go Deeper

What are your concerns? Where does your concern become worry? Worry may become misdirected and disproportionate, and then it feeds debilitating emotions.

Pray with Us: “Do not worry” (Matt. 6:25). We may say: Easier said than done! Lord Jesus, encourage us, show us that it’s possible, teach us how to first seek You and Your righteousness and to bring all our worries to You.

BY Kelli Worrall

Kelli Worrall is Professor of Communications and Chair of the Division of Music and Media Arts at Moody Bible Institute. She is the author of several books, including Pierced and Embraced: 7 Life-Changing Encounters with the Love of Christ. Kelli studied at Cedarville University (BA), Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (MRE), and Roosevelt University (MFA). Kelli and her husband, Peter, are parents of two children through adoption and enjoy decorating their Craftsman house.