So don’t worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
Matthew 6:31-32 (CSB)
Yesterday Jesus called worry “little faith.” Today He says “don’t worry” again, and He gives two reasons.
First, He quotes the worry. Three questions. What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear? For us it sounds like this. “What are we going to do about the car?” “How will this bill get paid?” “What if I lose my job?”
Then Jesus says whose questions those are. “The Gentiles eagerly seek all these things.” In the Sermon on the Mount, “Gentiles” means people who don’t know God. They chase after food and drink and clothes because they have no Father to take care of them. For them, worry makes sense. Worry is living like we have no one to ask.
Then the second reason. “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” Jesus doesn’t say we don’t need these things. We do. He says God already knows it. He knows about the car. He knows about the bill. He knew before we asked.
So when we catch ourselves asking those questions, we should finish the sentence with what Jesus says next: “and my Father knows I need this.” Then we should ask Him instead of the ceiling.
And He is our Father because of Jesus. People who don’t know God have no Father to take their needs to. We didn’t either, until Jesus. The Bible says that to everyone who receives Him, “he gave them the right to be children of God” (John 1:12 CSB). Jesus gave us a Father who already knows what we need.