Worry, #2

"Don't Worry?
I don't think He was talking to me."

We moderns, or postmoderns, or post-postmoderns often really over-inflate the importance of our time. It is only natural; after all, it is our time. One of the ways we do this is to look at the troubles we face in our time as greater than any group of people has ever faced. "Surely," we reason, "if Paul, or Peter, or the Lord Jesus, were speaking of the day in which we live, they never would have told us not to worry. They would have to have known that living sans-anxiety is unreasonable in our disturbed world."
Really?
The Lord Jesus Christ who told us to not worry about food or clothing (Matthew 6:25-30) clearly warned that His followers would find trouble in this world (John 16:33).
The same group of Christians Paul instructed, "Don't worry about anything." (Philippians 4:6) Paul also described as being "in a great ordeal of affliction . . . and . . . deep poverty." (2 Corinthians 8:2)
Peter, who instructed his scattered congregation to be, "casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you," (1 Peter 5:7) had already described these persecuted, refuge believers as "aliens," "scattered," "distressed by various trials," and slandered (1 Peter 1:1-6, & 2:12)
Clearly the instructions to live without worry were not given in a vacuum, and certainly not in a time and place in which there was nothing to worry about. If anything these First-Century believers faced more difficulty in a week than some of us do in a year. We can't just dismiss these admonitions to trust rather than worry.
Stay tuned. There is more to come.

It's STTA.