Is your future an object of concern or an object of anticipation?
Rev Dr. Jintae Kim
Charleston Truth Alliance Church
Mar 16, 2025
Introduction
During the Lent, we are meditating on the events and words of Jesus in the Gospels.
Today, the second Sunday of Lent, we will reflect on Jesus’ words about worry. The word “worry” appears five times in today’s text.
Why did Jesus emphasize “worry” so much?
1. Because no one is immune to worry. Once our hearts are occupied by worry and anxiety, we cannot afford to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
2. Not only that. Worry takes away our will to live, joy, and even health.
The Harm of Worry
We must know what harm worry causes. Our hearts are the battlefield of fierce spiritual warfare. The devil begins the fight by throwing the thought of worry into our hearts. When worry spreads in our hearts, the devil robs us of our spiritual, mental, and physical health.
Let me share with you two major crises I experienced in my life. The first was the crisis I experienced when I started my own business after resigning from Samsung. I had been living comfortably as a salaried worker, but suddenly I had no income and my future was bleak due to the mortgage on my house. In the midst of all this, in order to build a business, I had to quickly secure a supply line in Southeast Asia and sell to customers in the United States, and I had to spend money on overseas business trips to do so. When I boarded a plane to Southeast Asia to go on my first business trip, what came to my mind was the anxiety that even if I spent this much money, the suppliers would not trust me and produce the quantity and give me exclusive rights.
The second was the crisis I experienced when I was writing my doctoral dissertation at Westminster Theological Seminary at a late age. After suffering for several years because of the professors who asked me to change my proposal twice, I was physically and mentally exhausted during the process of finishing my dissertation. The thought that came to my mind in the middle of the night when I had not made any progress on my dissertation was the worry that I would not be able to complete it. What really tormented me was worry and anxiety. In a word, I felt like I was going crazy. There were more than one or two times when I wanted to give up. The struggle with worry was truly difficult.
Jesus knew our nature well, so he warned us, “Do not worry about tomorrow” (6:34). Jesus’ words hit the nail on the head. You know what. 92% of what we worry about will never happen.
Psychology team research results
Modern people live with countless worries. Some of them are serious enough to keep us up at night. Some of them just pass by our heads in an instant. Which of these worries are real? A psychology team from an American university studied this.
The results of the survey showed that 40% of people’s worries are about things that never actually happen. That means that they worry a lot about nothing. 30% of their worries are about things that already happened in the past. So, they are not things that can be solved by worrying about them now. They are useless worries. 10% are about health problems. Many of them are about illnesses that we will never actually get. Only 8% are really worth worrying about. However, even among those 8%, there is not much to really worry about. We worry about useless things no matter how much we worry.
In today’s message, Jesus presents several ways to be free from worry.
Jesus’ prescription for worry
1. Leave it to God!
Put your worries before God’s rule (6:26). Most of them are just useless worries.
6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his stature?
2. Turn your thoughts away from worry
Turn your attention to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness (6:33). Then, isn’t the Lord’s promise that all these things will be added to you? If you just turn your eyes to positive goals, you will experience that the problems that seemed so big no longer fill your heart with worry. This is the eye of faith.
3. Expect
Expect how God will provide for your needs (6:33). Then the future will not be an object of worry, but an object of expectation. That is faith. The saying that faith is the substance of things hoped for is precisely what it says.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen: for by it the ancients obtained a good report.” (Hebrews 11:1-2)
4. Do what needs to be done
Do what needs to be done today (6:34). Just do it!
6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Prayer
Father God, I see those who say they believe in Jesus but are always wandering in worry and concern about the future. Give us faith to entrust everything in our lives, even our very lives, to You, and let our faith grow to the point where our priorities are to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Grant us the courage to do what we must do today, while looking forward to the future that God will unfold in Jesus. I pray in the name of Jesus.