Faith v. Worry

I have done a lot of thinking and writing about faith and worry (especially in my book here). This morning, I found this quote from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones especially interesting and helpful. He was commenting on Matthew 6:30 in his Studies in the Sermon on the Mount.

Faith according to our Lord’s teaching in this paragraph, is primarily thinking; and the whole trouble with a man of little faith is that he does not think. He allows circumstances to bludgeon him. … We must spend more time in studying our Lord’s lessons in observation and deduction. The Bible is full of logic, and we must never think of faith as something purely mystical. We do not just sit down in an armchair and expect marvelous things to happen to us. That is not Christian faith. Christian faith is essentially thinking. Look at the birds, think about them, draw your deductions. Look at the grass, look at the lilies of the field, consider them. … Faith, if you like, can be defined like this: It is a man insisting upon thinking when everything seems determined to bludgeon and knock him down in an intellectual sense. The trouble with the person of little faith is that, instead of controlling his own thought, his thought is being controlled by something else, and, as we put it, he goes round and round in circles. That is the essence of worry. … That is not thought; that is the absence of thought, a failure to think.

This is so true!! Circumstances sweep over me and I act like the classic struggling swimmer--flailing about in the surf. I remember learning in lifeguard class that the first thing you do to a flailing swimmer is dunk them to get their attention. They have to start thinking again or they will likely drown the one coming to help them

Look. Observe. Consider. The Greek words used in Matthew 6 indicate to learn thoroughly, examine carefully, and to consider well. In other words, STOP and THINK.

But think about what? Consider what?

26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Consider God--consider how He has set up and provided for nature. Consider what He has revealed about Himself through Scripture and through creation. What do you know to be true about God? Are you letting your temporary circumstances define your beliefs for you? Or are you interpreting your temporary circumstances through the eternal revelation of God through His word? Don't throw all you believe about God out the window because you are buffeted by troubling circumstances. THINK.

HT: http://www.challies.com/archives/articles/quotes/a-failure-to-think.php