Do Not Be Anxious: Trusting God in Times of Crisis

Do Not Be Anxious: Trusting God in Times of Crisis


The world often feels like it’s unraveling—wars rage, systems collapse, leaders fail, and many struggle just to get by. From economic uncertainty to natural disasters to personal trials, it's no wonder that anxiety dominates modern life. But this isn’t new. Jesus spoke into a world just as troubled—if not more so.


In first-century Judea, the people to whom Jesus preached lived under Roman occupation, faced economic oppression, and were on the brink of national disaster. Yet, amid this looming crisis, Jesus said: 


“Do not be anxious about your life…”(Matt 6:25). 


These words weren’t spoken in a vacuum, nor were they a generic call to optimism. They were a deeply contextual call to trust in God’s covenant faithfulness as Israel stood on the edge of judgment and transformation.


The Kingdom Has Come—and Is Being Revealed


Jesus’ words about anxiety came during the Sermon on the Mount, a proclamation of the ethics and identity of the new covenant community—the redefined people of God. 


The “kingdom of God” was not a distant, future utopia but a present and intensifying reality in Jesus’ ministry. He was inaugurating God’s reign in a decisive way, calling Israel to repent, and forming a new people centered on himself.


To be anxious, then, was not just to be emotionally overwhelmed. It was to fail to perceive what God was doing in and through Jesus. It was to cling to old systems—Temple, Law, and national identity—rather than to trust in the emerging kingdom Jesus was revealing.


A Kingdom Reorientation of Life


In Matthew 6:25–34, Jesus uses the Greek word *μεριμνάω* (“to be anxious”) multiple times, each time exposing a contrast between the old way of living under fear and the new way of kingdom trust. This wasn’t an abstract spiritual principle. It was a radical reorientation for first-century Jews living through what Jesus described as “the end of the age” (Matt 24:3).


The coming judgment on Jerusalem (which would culminate in 70 AD) would be traumatic. But Jesus was calling his followers not to react with panic, but with kingdom trust. Their hope was not in preserving the old order, but in seeking God's kingdom and righteousness—His covenant faithfulness being revealed through Jesus, and their own faithful participation in it.


Three Reasons Not to Worry


 1. Belong to the Covenant Family


Jesus’ call not to worry rests on a relational foundation: God is your Father. This is covenant language. The birds and flowers are reminders that God cares for all creation—but especially for those in covenant with Him. This reminds us that righteousness isn’t merely moral perfection or legal status—it’s about being part of God’s covenant family through loyalty and faith.


Jesus' audience—ordinary Jews, marginalized and forgotten—were being invited into this redefined family. To trust the Father was to believe that He had not abandoned His people, even as the old age was passing away.


2. Anxiety Reveals Misplaced Trust


“Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”


Jesus isn’t minimizing real hardship. He’s revealing that worry stems from putting trust in perishable systems—like wealth, empire, or the Temple. These were about to be shaken.


In this moment of covenantal crisis, anxiety was a sign of resisting the kingdom. Jesus called his followers to a faith that didn’t rely on circumcision, status, or national identity, but on allegiance to him—the true Messiah and Son of God.


3. God’s Generosity Is Covenantally Rooted


Jesus points to the extravagant beauty of nature as evidence of God’s generosity. But more than a general truth, this is a reminder: God always provides for His people—not always materially, but always faithfully. Even if persecution or poverty came (and it did), they were not signs of God’s absence but part of the cost of following Jesus into the new world being born.


Anxiety as Forgetting the Story


Jesus compares his disciples’ anxiety to that of “the Gentiles” (Matt 6:32)—those outside the covenant. In doing so, he exposes anxiety as a kind of amnesia: forgetting who we are and whose story we live in.


Being part of God's covenant people isn't about observing the Law as a national boundary, but about faithfulness to Jesus, the crucified and risen Lord. To worry about clothing and food is to live as if we are still defined by the old world, the old markers, the old fears.


But in Christ, the covenant has been renewed. We are part of God's new creation project—and He knows what we need.


A First-Century Eschatological Word (and What It Means for Us)


When Jesus says,


“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt 6:33)


He’s not promising a comfortable modern life. He’s speaking to those who were about to live through the end of an age—the judgment of Israel and the fall of Jerusalem (Matt 24).


Yet his promise held true. Those who sought the kingdom—who left behind the Temple, trusted Jesus as Lord, and lived by kingdom ethics—were preserved, spiritually and often physically. The old world passed away, and God’s new creation people emerged, not defined by Torah or Temple, but by the Spirit and faithfulness to the Messiah.


That promise echoes forward. The age to come, in which we now live, is marked by God's faithfulness. The kingdom has come. Jesus reigns. And we are invited to embody the trust he called for in a time of great upheaval.


Conclusion 


“Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble”(Matt 6:34). 


Jesus wasn’t offering escapism. He was offering realism. Trouble would come—but so would God's faithfulness, day by day.


Living one day at a time is not passivity. It’s a refusal to let fear define our steps. It’s a bold declaration that our King has come, the kingdom has dawned, and the new age is here.


And in this New Covenant, the promises are richer than ever: God clothes our naked souls with His righteous glory, feeds us with the bread of life, and gives us living water to drink.


We are not abandoned—we are adorned, nourished, and sustained by the faithful love of the Father. In a world filled with anxiety and instability, Jesus offers more than comfort. He offers a new identity. Not based on fear, but on faithfulness. Not secured by worldly systems, but by a covenant-keeping God. The kingdom has come. And we are its people.


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