Do you struggle with anxiety? You’re not alone. Let’s face it—life is tough, and anxiety is a familiar experience for all of us, at least to some degree.

For some, anxiety is something that ebbs and flows with changing circumstances. The difficulty of our circumstances seems directly correlated to our level of anxiety. For others, it seems as though anxiety is the air we breathe—a constant feeling that accompanies us wherever we go. Even when things are going great, our happiness is tempered by a perpetual worry that our luck may soon run out.

That’s one of the tragic effects of anxiety. It poisons the well of gratitude and sows seeds of skepticism and doubt. Though we might never grumble against God out loud, we silently wonder in our hearts if God can really be trusted.

So is there anything we can do about it? Is there such a thing as getting rid of anxiety? Or is anxiety an inevitable experience that we should expect in our lives?

When we turn to God’s Word, we clearly see that anxiety is never considered a normal and acceptable for those who trust Christ. Throughout both the Old and New Testaments, God’s people are exhorted to reject fear and anxiety while joyfully relying on God instead (See: Josh. 1:9; Jer. 1:8; Ps. 56:3; Phil. 4:6; 1 Pt. 5:7).

In dealing with anxiety, one of the most oft-quoted biblical passages in amongst Christians is Matthew 6:25-34.

Here, Jesus warns his disciples against anxiety and encourages them to trust God. To illustrates his point, Jesus points to two examples—birds and lilies—noting that since God faithfully provides for them despite their own limitations, then he can certainly provide for his people whom he cares about even more.

For some, this passage provides immediate comfort and assurance of God’s provision:

God takes care of the birds and the lilies, so he will take care of me. Crisis averted. Praise God! Who’s up for some ice cream? 

For others, however, it raises a troubling set of questions:

What about all the birds that actually do die of starvation? And how about all the flowers that dry up and die for lack of water and good soil? Aren’t those examples of God choosing not to provide? If so, how in the world am I supposed to take any comfort in Jesus’ examples of the birds and the lilies? How does Jesus’ logic hold up against clear evidence to the contrary?

These are certainly understandable questions, and there is a lot that could be said in response. But I think a careful consideration of the passage will help us respond to these questions with two truths.

1. Our earthly needs are secondary.

In Matthew 5 and 6, Jesus is explaining to a crowd of Jews the spiritual realities of God’s kingdom which is now being fulfilled in Jesus himself. Jesus’ main point is that the full scope of God’s divine reign and his dealings with sinful humanity go far beyond merely physical, external matters. Since the Jews were so prone to think of God’s law in strictly physical terms, Jesus corrects them by pointing out the deeper spiritual implications of specific commandments. Jesus then builds on this theme by pointing out that God recognizes and rewards unseen faithfulness, rather than focusing merely on visible piety.

Why is this important? It informs how we should understand Jesus’ illustration about the birds and the lilies. By pointing to the birds and the lilies, Jesus is not making a sweeping promise of physical provision. Instead, he is pointing out the absurdity of human beings worrying about something so secondary as food and clothing. Indeed, Jesus prefaces his birds/lilies illustration with a reminder that “life [is] more than food and the body [is] more than clothing” (Matt. 6:25). Physical needs are not the main point of life.

So what is the main point? In the very same chapter of Matthew, Jesus instructs his disciples to “store up treasures in heaven” (Matt. 6:19) and “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matt 6:35). In both cases, Jesus is offering a direct alternative to worldly concerns that lead to anxiety.

Here’s the bottom line: We don’t always understand our greatest needs. But God does. And in God’s perfect wisdom, he has determined that we’ve got more important things to worry about than where the next paycheck is coming from.

Of course, this does not dismiss the difficulty of financial lack and the joy of trusting God to meet those needs. But if worldly provision is our biggest concern, we are missing the real point of God’s provision for us—the gospel. Though we deserve God’s righteous wrath for our rebellion against him, God has provided Jesus Christ to live a perfect life, die in our place, and credit us with his own righteousness. And because Jesus rose from the dead, we have eternal life awaiting us even after our life on earth comes to an end. Through Jesus, God has provided us with direct access to himself—our greatest good—today, tomorrow, and forever. That’s amazing provision!

Even in the midst of worldly hardship, our greatest concern should always be believing God’s kept promises in Christ, while living to make him known and cherished.

2. God’s provision is outside our control.

Jesus also points out how ridiculous it is for us to worry about things we cannot control, which includes basically everything in our lives.

I know. Those bills you have won’t pay themselves. And so you’ve been busting your hump to earn a steady paycheck while keeping a close watch over every line item of your carefully-crafted budget each month. Doesn’t that suggest that you really are in charge of meeting your own material needs?

Well, yes. And no.

You see, God has entrusted us with various responsibilities in life, and it s crucial that we work wisely and diligently to steward them well. (See Prov. 13:22; Matt. 25:1-30; Lk. 16:11; 1 Tim. 6:17-19) But it is the height of foolishness (and arrogance) to conclude that we are the masters of our own destiny. Throughout the pages of Scripture, God makes it crystal clear that hes is in charge. Always.

Jesus himself alludes to this fact when he points out that the birds “neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns” (Matt. 6:26) and the lilies “neither toil nor spin” (Matt. 6:28). Yet in both cases, according to Jesus, God is the one who generously provides. Furthermore, Jesus notes that we human beings are incapable of sustaining our own lives (Matt. 6:27).

Anxiety is often an expression of pride. This might seem surprising, given that anxiety often feels like a natural response when we’re being victimized in some way (e.g. persecution, poverty, sickness, etc.). Yet in reality, the root of anxiety most often is a heart that, even if momentarily, is not believing God’s faithful character and his sure promises.

If we really believe in the God whom Jesus describes in Matthew 6, then anxiety simply does not make sense. Life is more than food and clothing. So much more. Life is about God—discovering and delighting in all he is for us in Christ.

The question is, why waste this life by being anxious?

Every now and then, when times are tough and I’m struggling with frustration, disappointment, or worry, some well-meaning soul pats me on the back and attempts to console me with these words: “Hey, it could be worse.”

I must confess that although I understand and appreciate the sentiment, this often does very little to inspire in me any hope or optimism in the moment. To the contrary, it often comes across as a trite, halfhearted gesture which naïvely offers comfort in the midst of profound suffering simply by imploring the sufferer to look on the bright side.

Such glibness in the face of stark pain is indeed inappropriate. And we should patiently listen those who are hurting and endeavor to offer authentic, meaningful comfort and assistance.

Yet even as we consider the potential for shallowness—or even callousness—of the suggestion that things could be worse, those of us who know ourselves to be wretched sinners who live only by the grace of God must recognize that there is profound truth in that much-maligned platitude. Indeed, things could be worse. Much worse.

For insight into this, let us consider Jesus’ interaction with a crippled man in John 5:1-15. According to this eyewitness account, Jesus meets a man who has been crippled and bedridden for thirty-eight years. After a short exchange in which these details are made clear, Jesus heals the man instantaneously, simply telling the man to take up his bed and walk.

But another interesting dialogue follows. After Jesus and the once-crippled man have parted ways, they eventually meet again a short time later. And here is what Jesus has to say to this man:

“See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”
– (John 5:14)

Now imagine for a moment that you were the man hearing this from Jesus after having just been healed of a thirty-eight year-long chronic illness. Chances are your first thought would be something like, “What?! Something worse? Does this guy understand how much I have suffered? I couldn’t get up from my bed for thirty-eight years! Other than death, I can’t really think of much worse than that.”

Well, the fact is that Jesus did indeed understand how much this man had suffered (see verse 6). And it was because of his great compassion for this man that Jesus healed him right then and there. Yet Jesus knew that there was a much worse kind of suffering awaiting this man if he continued in his sin. What Jesus alludes to here is made explicit elsewhere in Scripture:

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

– (Romans 6:23)

From the apostle Paul’s statement here, we see that the supreme suffering Jesus refers to is God’s holy wrath which he rightly reserves for all sinners. This man’s thirty-eight years of suffering, though excruciating, were only a faint shadow of the eternal anguish to be experienced under the righteous anger of a holy God. And Jesus’ kind act of relieving this man of his thirty-eight year burden was a foreshadowing picture of God’s lavish kindness in sending a Savior to release guilty rebels from the power and penalty of their sin.

As for this man’s physical suffering—followed by his physical relief—these things are not minimized or overlooked. Both Jesus and the crippled man confront the reality of the condition. But this account is punctuated by Jesus’ wise observation that no worldly suffering is ultimate. There is always something worse—the just, unwavering, unrelenting, unimpeachable wrath of the Almighty God.

What should we take away from this? Among other things, a firm grasp on this can go a long way in helping us gain great perspective on our suffering. Even in the midst of the most bitter pain and heartbreak, those of us who repent and trust in Jesus can rejoice in knowing that God has mercifully spared us from the greatest tribulation of all—his own wrath. This immeasurably heavy burden he has placed on Jesus who died on the cross in our place and then rose from the grave to forever defeat sin.

Sure, we see and experience the brutal consequences of sin every day—sickness, war, famine, death. Yet because we hope in Jesus, the awesome reality for us is that his victory is our victory. As bitter and seemingly unbearable as things may become in this life, the pain we experience here is never ultimate. For those who belong to Jesus, the best is always yet to come.

So, Christian, let this be your hope: It could be much worse. You could be miserable in your pain, and even more miserable to consider that has no purpose, no meaning, and no possible relief. You could be lying awake at night, afraid to sleep because you fear what might await you if you don’t wake up. You could be filthy rich and lacking in no material thing, and yet perpetually unhappy as you yearn for peace and fulfillment that seems unattainable.

Yes, it could be much worse. But because of God’s abundant mercy, you have not seen the absolute worst. And you never will.