“I do not think the forest would be so bright, nor the water so warm,
nor love so sweet if there were no danger in the lakes”
-C.S. Lewis, Out of The Silent Planet
When I was in high school, I discovered a chapter of the Bible which I absolutely adored: Luke 12. This chapter has a ton of wisdom from Jesus, but what drew my eye especially were verses 11 and 12. In the NASB, it reads as "And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not become anxious about how or what you should speak in your defense, or what you should say; (12) for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say". Now, when I was in High School, I wasn't very worried about being brought to a synagogue, but the message is still there: When you are questioned on your faith and you are worried about how it will turn out, God has your back. His Spirit will guide you. I only wished that I had worked to be in those situations more often.
What I found in this passage, and in verses 22 through 34, was assurance through worry. It doesn't matter on what your age is: there is always something to worry about. That being said; there are few things actually worth the worry. According to Jesus, worry implies some darker beliefs of the one worrying. Throughout Luke 12, and throughout the Word of God as a whole, we are told that God provides, and to not be afraid. When we worry, we end up in the position of doubting God in His Gospel, in His Goodness, and in his Graciousness.
To live a life saturated with fear about the things that we think we need goes directly against God's own Word, and His faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22-23). I say "things that we think we need" because in verse 33 of Luke 12, Jesus gives a bit of a reality check to those listening to Him. He says "Sell your possessions and give to charity". 'But Jesus', one of those listening might have thought, 'you just said that God would provide for all of our needs, of course you mean that God would provide for our clothing, our homes, our Ford Mustangs and things like that right?" (Okay, maybe not that last one). But Jesus hasn't dropped the microphone just yet, he continues in verses 33 and 34 to say, "Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, and unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys. (34) For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also". Boom. We (The human race) have for so long focused on the wrong things in life, and because of that we are afraid, refusing to take risks because we think that living a comfortable, disappointing life, will be better than the immensely greater plan of God. What we should focus on is the eternal, but instead we think about how somebody might think about how we really feel about them, or we think that our life is define by what we own, instead of who we know.
I would urge you all to pray and see if this is a blind spot in your life: I know that it is often one in mine, and it takes careful examination to see it and know what it takes to deal with it.
