But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:33‭-‬34 NIV

I borrowed the title of this blog from Tim Keller, a Christian Pastor and Author, who has himself been going through his own battle with Cancer. It’s one of the occupational hazards of going through cancer treatment that periodically you have scans. These are, of course, very important and help medical experts decide on the next course of action. I have one coming up and although the procedure itself it pretty straightforward, waiting for the results is filled with dread, anxiety and apprehension.

Up until now these results have been largely bad news and led to more treatments. But this time I’m hopeful of a better outcome given the nature of the last chemotherapy. I am however dreading it in case it’s bad news again.

If you’re a Christian then I guess the verses above will be quite familiar to you. I believe them to be true, but sometimes it doesn’t stop me from worrying. It can seem like such a flippant thing to just say “don’t worry about tomorrow”. Particularly when you’re waiting on big news, have important meetings or need to confront something difficult.

Reading this again it’s the verse before the “therefore” that’s key, “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Anxiety often occurs when we’re not in control of the outcome and this has the affect of taking our eyes off Jesus and focusing our attention on our situation…a situation that we can’t change.

Jesus here is promising us that he will provide everything we need whatever the outcome of our situation, if we seek after him first and foremost.

This is a question of faith and involves us intentionally giving our worries to him. He said “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (Peter 5:7 NIV). You and I are of great value to him and his desire is for us to seek after him. It’s when we do this that we find our peace.