Luke 12:24-26 - What's the point in worrying?

12:24

Jesus, and indeed the whole Bible, often uses examples from nature to illustrate truths about God. The whole universe was created by God, so we should not be surprised that features of the universe can tell us something about God. Most animals do not store up food, but God provides them with food. When we  worry about things we are implicitly saying that God will not provide for us. Nature tells us that this is not the case. Of course, we also have to be careful in taking things too far. Clearly, there are times when animals do die for lack of food. The key point that Jesus makes here is that we are far more valuable to God than birds or animals. So if He provides for them, surely He will provide for us. The world tells us we are out on our own, the Bible tells us that we are under God’s care.

12:25,26

Jesus then points out the utter futility of worrying. All our worrying actually achieves precious little. Just consider how much time, and how much emotional effort you have expended on worrying. And what good did it do us? We need to recognise the limits of our capabilities. The humanist approach effectively relies on us being able to have total control, but of course we cannot do this. In fact, we cannot come anywhere near close to it. We had no say in whether or not we were born, no say in when we would be born. We have very little say in when we die. Even a purely scientific approach to life confirms that these facts are true. If that was all there is, then we would indeed be in a poor state, at the mercy of blind pitiless chance. But is it is only part of the truth. We had no say, but God had a say, indeed it is only because He purposefully chose to create us that we exist. So we are not at the mercy of blind pitiless chance, but under the loving care of our Creator.