Tomorrow I’ll be preaching on anxiety from Luke 12:22-34. We can all use some comfort and encouragement right now, and what better place than where Jesus reminds us not to worry.

During my study, I came across an interesting story about Abraham Lincoln, as well as some good devotional thoughts. I won’t be able to share this whole quote tomorrow, so I thought I’d share it here. It is from R. Kent Hughes, one of my favorite preachers…

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“And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them” (vv. 29, 30).

Worry is intrinsically useless, and especially so for Christians because God knows what we need. When Lincoln was on his way to Washington to be inaugurated, he spent some time in New York with Horace Greeley and told him an anecdote that was meant to be an answer to the question everybody was asking him: “Are we really going to have a civil war?”

In his circuit-riding days Lincoln and his companions, riding to the next session of court, had crossed many swollen rivers on one particular journey, but the formidable Fox River was still ahead of them. They said one to another, “If these streams give us so much trouble, how shall we get over the Fox River?”

When darkness fell, they stopped for the night at a log tavern, where they fell in with the Methodist presiding elder of the district who rode through the country in all kinds of weather and knew all about the Fox River. They gathered about him and asked him about the present state of the river. “Oh, yes,” replied the circuit rider, “I know all about the Fox River. I have crossed it often and understand it well. But I have one fixed rule with regard to the Fox River—I never cross it till I reach it.”

Worry projects the worst: the Fox becomes the mighty Mississippi at flood stage. The worrier is perpetually going unfed and unclothed. Worry loads the present with the weight of the future. And when you load the troubles you are anticipating upon the troubles you are presently experiencing, you give yourself an impossible burden.

As George MacDonald wisely put it: “No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today, that the weight is more than a man can bear.” Jesus said just that in his summary statement of the parallel passage in Matthew: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).

Obsessive worry about food and clothing is actually pagan. “For the pagan world runs after such things,” said Jesus (v. 30). We are not to worry. We are to live like Christians, trusting God to take care of us!

Source: Luke, Vol. 2 – That You May Know the Truth, by R. Kent Hughes

Yesterday I visited an 86-year old member in our church named Bob who is dying of multiple infections and has been put on hospice. He’s currently at a skilled nursing facility in the low desert. It’s actually a home right in a neighborhood but it has been converted into a nursing home.

The facility is very nice. When I arrived at the front door, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I rang the doorbell and a nurse came out to greet me. He said due to COVID, he couldn’t let me in, but he walked me around the building to the backyard, where I was not only able to see Bob, but talk with him. His door was slid open and his bed was positioned inside near the doorway so I could see him clearly and speak to him easily.

God was so gracious. Bob’s son was already there when I arrived. I was able to talk with him for several minutes, then turn toward Bob to talk to him. He wasn’t responsive, but I always treat a hospitalized member as though they can hear and understand me, even if they can’t respond.

“Bob,” I said. “This is your pastor from the Baptist church. I just want to let you know God loves you and we love you. We’re praying for you. God is going to take you home in his perfect time. I’m here with your son and we’re going to pray for you now.”

Times like this are always hard, and we’re never quite sure what to say. But we seek to show the love of God, speak the promises of Scripture, and pray for God’s Spirit to comfort his people.

“I will say to the LORD, “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Return, O LORD! how long? Have pity on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love” (Ps. 90:12-14a).

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

Rest. How we ache for it. Long we have waited for it. And yet we get the sense things will grow harder before they get easier. Today is a good day to rest in God, and wait patiently on him. He is with you, and he will give you strength to get through this day, then the next, then the next.

Hebrews 4 speaks of Christ as our spiritual Sabbath. In him we already enjoy spiritual rest, the firstfruit of our eternal rest.

“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his” (Heb. 4:9-10).

The Jews treated Sabbath as a sacred day, set apart from the other six, in which they prayed, sang, feasted, and enjoyed the fruit of their labors. Jesus is that Sabbath rest for us, the one who finished the work of earning God’s favor, and he has told us to rest in him alone. Already, we have a spiritual peace and rest, and one day, it will melt into eternal rest.
What a glorious day that will be!

Listen to the words of the Puritan Richard Baxter written in 1650:

“When we have had in this world a long night of sad darkness, will not the day breaking and the rising of the Sun of Righteousness be then seasonable? When we have endured a hard winter in this cold climate will not the reviving spring be then seasonable?…

“When we have passed a long and tedious journey, and that through no small dangers, is not home then seasonable? When we have had a long and perilous war, and have lived in the midst of furious enemies, and have been forced to stand on a perpetual watch, and received from them many a wound, would not a peace with victory be now seasonable? When we have been captivated in many years’ imprisonment, and insulted over by scornful foes, and suffered many pinching wants, and hardly enjoyed bare necessaries, would not a full deliverance to a most plentiful state, even from this prison to a throne, be now seasonable?…

“Now we are often grudging that we have not a greater share of comforts; that our deliverances are not more speedy and eminent; that the world prospers more than we; that our prayers are not presently answered. But our portion is kept to a fitter season. When the winter comes we shall have our harvest.” (Richard Baxter, The Saints Everlasting Rest)

Father, how we long for that day of rest. Until then, and for all of eternity, let us find our rest in your Son.

This world is not our home, but even as pilgrims, we still come to love the land we are part of, the freedoms we’ve enjoyed, and the people who live here. What’s happening in our country today with the chaos and corruption is heartbreaking and could not be a more vivid picture of Romans 1.

“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Rom. 1:28-32).

America has insisted for decades we don’t need him, if he exists at all. Some today are outraged, others are panicking, others are making snarky remarks or see-I-told-you so comments on social media. But deep down, we should all be disturbed by what is happening. Thankfully the same chapter of the Bible that gave us an ugly but accurate portrayal of our culture provides the cure:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.'” (Romans 1:16–17).

Rise up, O church. May God give us strength, protection, joy, and peace for whatever lies ahead.