TRANSCRIPT:
And I'll read from Matthew 6:19-34, and we'll be looking particularly at verse 26 this morning. Matthew 6:19-24 reads:
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."
Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Before we look in a bit more detail at the Word of the Lord, let me pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that You are a God who speaks. You are not a God who has hidden Himself away, but You're a God who's revealed Himself to us, and You've revealed Yourself to us through Your Word. And we thank You for the light that Your Word sheds not only on our state and on who You are and what You've done, but also on this natural world around us and what it is that You are seeking to tell us through that world as well. And we pray, Lord, as we look at Your Word, that You would send Your Spirit, that we might have eyes to see and hearts to respond to Your precious Word. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.
I wonder, actually, if you could put your hand up if you're a bird watcher. Do we have any bird watchers? This is not good; my whole sermon is about birds. I was hoping I'd have lots of bird watchers. But it's okay because I hope some of you at least will become bird watchers after this. And we should because Jesus tells us to, you know. All Christians should be bird watchers. Jesus says that; He gives us a command in verse 26 there: "Look at the birds of the air." Look at them, watch them. That it's not just a glancing sight; it's an observation. Ponder them, think about them, observe.
This command sits in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, and so to understand it, we should situate ourselves in the context. Verses 19 to 34 all sit together as one unit. The start of the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus speaking to His disciples about what His kingdom is like. In chapter 5, Jesus is setting out how the law applies to people in His kingdom. In the beginning of chapter 6, verses 1 to 19, Jesus starts teaching us about how people in His kingdom should practice their righteousness, particularly their giving, and their praying, and their fasting. They're to do these things secretly, He says.
And then, in verses 19 to 34 of chapter 6, He starts speaking to us about how we are to interact with the material world. Verses 19 to 21, if you have a look with me there, Jesus gives us two options: you can lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, or you can lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. In verses 22 to 23, Jesus gives us two more options: you can have eyes full of light or eyes full of darkness. Your eyes, they represent your desires, what you hunger after, and He's saying that you can seek to fix your eyes on the things of light, or you can fix your eyes on the things of darkness.
And in verse 24, which is the crux point of this section, Jesus tells us very clearly what He's talking about. He says, "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money," or both God and mammon. That's what some translations use, the reason some translations use the word mammon there is it's a transliteration of the Greek word, and the reason they use it is it's a little bit tricky to translate because it sort of captures a bit more than our concept of money and carries the concept of wealth, of property, of possessions, but also contained within the word is this idea of trust.
And it makes sense, right? Jesus is saying you cannot serve God, who demands your absolute trust, and also serve the material things of this world and place your trust in them. The contrast in this section is between, as you'll see in verse 32, between Gentiles, those who live for this world, and Christians, those of the kingdom of God, true Israel, if you like. The Gentiles lay up treasures on earth; the Gentiles have eyes full of darkness; they long for and desire darkness. The Gentiles serve and place their trust in material wealth and possessions. The Gentiles similarly are full of anxiety about this world and the things of this world, about their physical well-being, about food, about drink, about clothing, about their body.
The people of God, the kingdom of God, on the other hand, lay up treasures in heaven; they desire and yearn after light; they serve God, they place their trust in God, and they don't worry about food and drink and clothing. Instead, they seek after the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Now, this sounds good, doesn't it? But it's very hard to do. Look what Jesus calls you to do in verse 25 if you are one of His, if you are in the kingdom. This is what should be characteristic of your life: "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on." You are commanded by God not to stress about food, drink, clothing, about paying your bills, about getting a job, because you are of the kingdom of God, because you serve God and not mammon.
This is very difficult to do because we are enfleshed souls; we are body and spirit, and our body needs food, our body needs drink, our body needs clothing. Without these things, we will die. And these particular necessities that Jesus is picking up on here are regular needs; you need them often. We all eat multiple times a day; we drink, you know, liters of water a day, maybe some of us. And I'm yet to meet someone who doesn't get dressed in the morning, right? How could we possibly not worry about these things? How could we not be consumed with them? How can we not be thinking about the next meal and the next drink and what we're going to wear tomorrow?
Well, hopefully, we'll see some answers to how that works out today. But in the first place, Jesus is saying that those who belong to His kingdom are not characterized by worry over these physical necessities. They are not their consuming concern; they're not stress heads about paying the bills. Instead, they are characterized by a humble, dependent trust in their Heavenly Father.
And in order to help us, because He, and Jesus knows we need help with this, in order to help us, He gives us two object lessons: the birds and the lilies. And you could spend a lot of time thinking about both of these, and we're just going to look at the birds today. Look at verse 26 with me: "Look at the birds of the air," Jesus says. "They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"
Look at the birds. Go outside, Jesus says, sit down, and observe. It's going to help you; it's a spiritual practice. And Jesus says, look at how they aren't constantly fretting about the future. Look at how they're not fussing about financial security. Watch their distinct lack of worry, and yet see how even though they are not fretting and fussing and worried, your Father, your Father, not their father, very interesting, your Father provides for their needs.
Your Father knows what the millions of birds around Sydney need, and He untiringly provides it for them. Is Jesus here advocating for a lack of planning, a lack of work? Is He saying that because the birds do not sow nor reap nor save up, that you should neither sow nor reap nor save up? No, He's not. He's saying, look at the birds, and when you look at the birds, you actually see that the birds diligently work, don't they?
How does the Father, how does your Father feed the birds? Well, He does it by waking them up in the morning, getting them out of bed, and sending them off into the field to hunt for that worm. That's how He feeds the birds. He feeds them by rewarding their diligent, humble, dependent, trusting labors.
Look at the birds, watch them plan. Have you ever seen a bird build a nest after it lays its eggs? Have you ever seen a bird decide to migrate after it freezes to death? They don't, right? So there is a level of forethought in birds; there's a level of concern, of planning, but they're not consumed by tomorrow. They diligently work today, discharging their limited capacity for work and forethought, whilst humbly, dependently trusting their Father to provide for their needs.
And what Jesus is saying is that the birds have far less capacity for diligence and planning than you do. They can't sow, they can't reap, they can't store up in barns, and yet even in their limited capacity, God provides for them. You also have limited capacity, don't you? That's where our anxiety comes from. It comes from the fact that we're limited, from the fact that we can think about the future, we can plan, but we can't guarantee anything. We can sow, but we can't make it rain. We can reap, but we can't guarantee how much wheat is actually on the plant. You can't guarantee your next pay rise; you don't know what the bank's going to do with your mortgage, right? And that's why we fret because we can't manage all the details.
But the birds understand their limitations, unlike us. That's why Jesus has just previously linked anxiety to this insatiable desire to gather and to hoard and to store up wealth in the previous verses. This is how we try and manage the future; we do it by just directing our eyes unceasingly towards those things that we think we need. All the anxious person can see are the problems that they have to control. They check their bank account incessantly. The person who is anxious about their social standing checks their social media all the time to make sure their friends are still liking their posts. The person who's anxious about their job is so worried about what their boss thinks that they're not even working.
Those thoughts run through your head; does that sort of thinking describe you? I know it does for me at times. I think it's true of all of us if we place our hope in material things, in the money we can earn, in the jobs that we have, you know, the size of our bank account. Do you know what Jesus says? You're serving that master. If you place your hope, if you're directing all your energies towards them, Jesus says you're serving it. And you know what? Very often, that master will give you what you want. You make your bank account your master, and you work diligently, unceasingly, with all of your focus on building your bank account, and you'll probably grow your bank account. Mammon gives you something of what you want, but in doing so, it will make you its slave.
A bird in a cage never worries about their food either, do they? Why? Because their owner makes sure there's a big bowl of food sitting there. They're quite different from the birds out in the field. The birds out in the field are free, but they're living in risk, and they have a bowl sitting there full of food. Birds that are free are dependent on God. That's what Jesus wants for His people. He wants His people to be free but dependent.
And so, go outside a bit later today and watch the birds. I can hear some now. Watch them; watch how they are the epitome of carefree diligence. They are exemplars of trusting workers. And Jesus tells us when we're feeling so full of that anxiety, that worry, that concern, and we're feeling like we just can't get it out of our minds, go outside and watch the birds. Instead of fretting, they are flitting to and fro. Instead of worrying, they are whistling.
And it might sound a bit trite, right? My mortgage is going up; I don't have enough. Like, I've done the budget; it doesn't make... my budget is not adding up at the end of the day. There's actual things I need to worry about here, Jesus. And so you say to me, are you telling me that just going outside is going to fix all your problems? I said, no, I'm not telling you; Jesus is. Right? Look at the birds and learn your first lesson: that those who are part of God's kingdom have a humble, dependent trust in the provision of their Father for their physical needs.
And you could spend oodles of time, and I'm encouraging you to go and spend oodles of time watching the birds and learning from them. But another thing we have to understand is that whenever Jesus speaks, remember, He is the greatest teacher of all time. Whenever He speaks, there are things working here at multiple levels, and I don't think it's anything different here as well. And so when Jesus says, "Look at the birds," I don't think He's just saying, "Look at the birds out there, outside." I think we should be thinking too, "Oh, what about the birds in the story of Scripture?" Perhaps they teach us something as well.
And birds turn up quite a bit in the Bible, and observing some of the connections and themes associated with the birds of the Bible could help us to see Jesus' command in a little bit of deeper depth. For a start, keeping on the provision theme, we read about some birds in Exodus. They turn up twice in Israel's rescue through the wilderness, in Numbers 11 and in Exodus 16. God doesn't just provide His people with manna; He provides them with birds as well, with quail.
In Exodus 16, that we read, were your first read of God providing quail, and there the Israelites are complaining to God. They're grumbling back in verse 3 of chapter 16. They say, "Would that we have died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger." This is God's trusting people, right? Whinging to the Lord.
And it's an important thing to note: the Israelites look back at their time in Egypt, where they were what? Slaves, right? And they say, "We had provision and material security then." And they did. Remember, mammon is a master who often provides. But what did the Egyptians require in order to fill the bread pots of the Israelites? Slavery. And now God's released them; He's freed them, and He sent them out into Sinai, and they've discovered for the first time in a few hundred years that freedom means that the food bowl doesn't get filled up every day. Freedom means risk. Freedom forces us to our knees. Freedom displays our dependence.
I noticed this, actually, in the business world. I used to work for a big corporate, BP, and in big corporates, your job is generally pretty secure, and you feel quite distant from the actual need of the business. You get paid if the company makes a profit; you get paid if it makes a loss. I then moved to a small business, started working for a little bookshop, and I realized very quickly that I needed sales in order to cover my costs. I needed people to buy books so that I could pay bills, and I started worrying. I never switched off. I watched our website sales incessantly. I had notifications being... it had come through, "Yes, we got another one. That's another bill I can pay," right? I became a slave to sales.
Eventually, by God's grace, I realized that I couldn't force anyone to buy a book, right? But God can. And I began to pray and to trust God. I began to plan and to diligently work today, discharging what limited capacity I had today, and just trusting God that He would provide. And sometimes He would provide plenty, and sometimes He would provide not quite enough, but the bills all got paid for six years. It's quite amazing, I think.
And we're all like that. We're... our modern society, our modern industrial civilization, distances us from our dependence upon God, places many middlemen in between, and it shrouds us in this illusion of being able to manage outcomes. But we can't. You just can't. I mean, actually, here's another story. So, but I started off working for a small startup company, and it was purely based on investment. Investors would pour money into this company, and we would burn it, right? And they were sort of hoping that at the end, they'd get a return, but there was no return happening. And so every month, the investors would sit there and have to decide, "Do we throw another few hundred thousand dollars into this business and watch them burn it for the month?" And so every month, I knew that the board was having these discussions, "Do we shut down the company? Do we shut down the company? Do we shut down the company?" And I went, "You know what? I've got a small family; this is not good. I'm gonna go work for somewhere where I've got security."
So we moved from Adelaide to Brisbane. I went and I worked for BP. I'm like, "Yes, big multinational, refinery, we'll be right. I'm gonna stay here for five years, you know." Three months in, we had our second child. I was... took a week off while we had the new baby, and I got a phone call from my boss, "Hey, Tom, you're gonna have to find a new job. We're shutting the refinery down." Three months, come on.
Nothing is secure. We are all utterly, utterly dependent upon God's provision. And so were the Israelites, getting back to them, sorry. They did not realize they needed to trust God. What would God do in the face of these Israelites who are whinging and complaining and not trusting Him for provision? Well, in Exodus 16 and Numbers 11, God, through the birds, provides for them, despite their lack of trust.
Isn't it interesting that on the one hand, Jesus presents us with this picture of these birds who intrinsically trust their Father, or your Father, and on the other hand, we see birds in the Old Testament that God uses to provide for the physical needs of His people who do not trust Him? You know, God's care for His people is so complete that His provision is not dependent upon your trust. If God provided for the Israelites who do not trust Him, how much more will He provide for you who do in His kingdom?
Think back on those times when you were worried, you know, when you worried yourself sleepless. You had those nights staying up, running over all the scenarios. Remember lying awake, desperately trying to make sure you've covered all the bases. Remember how prayer was the last thing on your mind when you stumbled out of bed the next morning. Did God provide? Did God neglect you because of your lack of faith? No, you're still here today, which proves my point. God's provided for each and every one of you, despite all of those times of anxious fretting and with little or no faith.
Look at the quail that God provided for the Israelites and trust in God's generous, unflinching provision. It's not dependent on you at all. One of the reasons that Jesus gives as to why God will provide for all your physical needs is that you are worth more than the birds. See that in verse 26? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
We are not birds or beasts that operate only by instinct, looking for food and shelter and a mate. We are image bearers of God. Now, this can actually raise a problem for us. You might say, "Look, Jesus, I agree with you. We're worth more than the birds, but that means our needs are actually greater than the birds'. You know, sure, I should trust You, Jesus, for food and for drink and for clothing, but they're basic. I have higher needs. I need friendship, I need love, I need hope, right?"
Doesn't Jesus realize this? But even in this regard, I think the birds teach us something. You see, birds are creatures that are quite unlike the beasts. If you go and you watch a sheep or a cow or a horse or something like that, they have four feet planted firmly on the ground; their face points down, right? They're earthly animals; that's what they are. Birds, on the other hand, are created on an entirely separate day—day five of creation—and they are created in this space that sits between heaven and earth. They live on the earth, sure, but they primarily exist in the sky.
We are a little bit like the birds. In fact, I would argue that you're bird-like. You do not go around on four feet with your face to the ground. We are not entirely earthly or earthy, but we are not like the angels, these winged creatures who exist only in the heavens, who have no flesh, who are not of this earth at all. We're like birds. We are of the earth, but we're built for heaven. Our stomach desires food, but our heart yearns for God. We nest on the earth, but we long for the skies. Our toes grip the soil, while our eyes gaze at the stars.
Perhaps this is part of the reason that humans have long dreamt of flying. Isn't it weird that we want to go up there and fly in the sky? No other animal does this, apart from winged creatures and us. From the time of Babel, we've sought to reach higher up. We've told stories about people soaring through the skies for thousands of years. In our modern technology, it has allowed us to fly like birds in our parachutes, hang gliders, jet planes, and spacecraft.
It's an indictment on us that we should descend below the birds in fretting about the material things that they trust God for, but it would be an indictment upon us as well if our desires should only rise as high as theirs. Although the birds search the heavens, they are still mere animals. Our desire to be bird-like should not stop at soaring. We should see that this is a spiritual desire that God has placed in us, that is displayed in our physical desire for the skies.
Look at where Jesus tells us to aim for: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." This is what we are to desire. This is the sky that we are to launch ourselves into. This is, in fact, what we are to be concerned about, to be worried about. It's interesting in the Bible, anxiety is not universally a sin. Did you know that? Paul is described as anxious, and it's a good thing. He speaks in 1 Corinthians 7 of how married people are anxious for the things of their spouse, but unmarried people are anxious for the Lord. That's a good thing. Paul sends Timothy to the Philippians. Why? Because he's the only one who's anxious for them. It's all the same concept that's carrying through.
In fact, Jesus Himself shows what we would consider signs of anxiety in the Garden of Gethsemane. And this is because of what Jesus says here: we should be anxious; we should be concerned for the things of God, the things of heaven, the things of the kingdom of heaven, and God's righteousness.
We could spend a long time thinking about what that means, but I just want to spend a moment looking at the birds again and showing us how they teach us about these concerns as well. One of the ways that our longing for heaven appears is in our desire to draw near to God. That is what it is to fly, isn't it? To draw near to the heavens, where God is. It's clear from the time of our birth that we are estranged from our Father in heaven. We sin; we hate; we neglect giving thanks to God. Our desires become beastly, if you like. Where we are meant to long for the skies, we focus ourselves down on the earth. We are far from God and couldn't even draw near to Him if we wanted to. But there is still that desire in us that longs to draw near.
Religions are evidence of that. Man has forever invented ways to pull himself upwards, to try and ascend, to try and reach God into the clear blue sky of spirituality. But when we observe the birds of Scripture, we see that we do not even need to be anxious for this. We do not need to be like Icarus from that Greek myth, who made his wings of wax and feather and flew up to the Sun, only to find them melt and him come crashing down to earth. That's what all our manmade religions are like; they're wings made of wax and feather. They fail at the end and end in disaster.
We don't need to be like that because God is a bird-like God in Scripture. God is a God who descends from the heavens, who bridges the gap between us, and then works in us that we might ascend with Him. It's quite remarkable. Let me paint the picture for you a little bit.
Right at the very beginning of the Bible, we see this imagery start to come in. In the early verses, God creates the heavens and the earth, and the Spirit is described as hovering over the waters. And that is a word—it's used later on in Deuteronomy 32 quite explicitly—as a bird concept, as a mother bird hovering over her young. When all this chaos on the earth, God is a God who descends in that space that birds inhabit.
We see this again at Jesus' baptism. The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove as He's baptized, pointing not only to the fact that Jesus is indwelt by the Holy Spirit but also to the fact that Jesus is the center point of God's descending upon the earth, of God's bridging the gap between heaven and earth. Jesus is the great messenger; He's the great angel, those winged creatures who God sends down from heaven to connect heaven and earth and to see His rule worked out among us. Jesus is that. He's that bird-like expression of God bridging the gap.
And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Holy Spirit can come down on a bird, like a bird, on the followers of Christ as well. And the Holy Spirit, when He comes and He indwells sinners like you and I, He gives us wings that we might ascend to be with God. Exodus 19:4 actually uses this very language when it speaks of the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. God says, "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself." God delivering out of slavery and then placing His people, as it were, on His own wings and bringing them up to be with Himself.
Whenever you are anxious about your standing with God, about drawing near to God, and feeling far from Him, look at the birds. See them flying up to the heavens and then coming down to land upon the earth, and remember that God is a God who does this, who descends and ascends. He does not stay off in heaven, far from us. He does not leave our desire for the sky unfulfilled. God comes down to people who are full of sin and selfishness, and He hovers over them by His Spirit. He brings His Word down to sinful people like you and me, and He brings His rule to life in our lives and bridges the gap in the person of Jesus Christ.
He released our self-imposed chains that held us down by forgiving our sin. He descends upon us by His Holy Spirit and gives us wings that we might fly into the heavens to be with Him. If you are not a Christian here today, I know this imagery might be a bit unusual for you, but does it hit something of what you long for? Do you think life is more than just this earth? Do you want to be like a beast, roaming around ever worried about the next mouthful, or like a bird, living on this earth, certainly, but bridging the gap and ascending to heaven?
This is the God of the Bible. This is the message of the Bible. The message of the Bible is that God is a God who fulfills those desires, who bridges that gap, who knows that we are birds with feet on the ground but heart in the skies. If you're not a Christian, you are a bird, but you're in a cage. You've been locked up by your sin. You serve mammon, and he has bound you tight with promises of security. Come to Christ today and ask Him to free you. It's risky outside, but the sky is beckoning.
But you might say that you know God has come down. It sounds like a plausible concept, but how could He possibly accept someone like you or like me? Sure, God says that He comes and delivers people on His own wings, that we might live with Him, but how can He do that when we're so full of sin?
Well, look at the birds. Birds turn up once again in the Bible in the sacrificial system of Israel. They are an option that God gives in some instances to those who cannot afford the more expensive sacrifices of lambs and goats. One instance of this, one example of this, is the redemption of the firstborn. Ever since Israel left Egypt, whenever you had a firstborn son, you had to offer a sacrifice of a lamb and a turtle dove to redeem that son, to remind you that God owns all the firstborn, to remind you that God destroyed the firstborn of Egypt. But if you couldn't afford the lamb, you could offer two turtle doves or two pigeons. Leviticus 12:8 says, "If she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtle doves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering."
What do you think Jesus' mother offered? I'll tell you. In Luke 2:24, she offered the poor person's sacrifice. She offered the two turtle doves to redeem the life of the Lamb of God. Amazing, isn't it? How does this help us? Well, it tells us that God is ready and able to provide a sacrifice even for the poorest among us. That's what the birds were in the sacrificial system. They were a provision for the poor.
Well, who here is not a beggar before God? Who has any merit they can present to Him? Who has any spiritual riches here today? We are utterly destitute in our sin, and yet, look at the birds. God provides for the destitute. God provides for those who are in poverty. God provides for those who have nothing. Jesus is that sacrificial bird. He is the sacrifice for the poor. You won't find Him referred to that way in the New Testament, but He is the fulfillment of all the sacrifices, and so I can say that with confidence. He is the provision of God for a needy people. He has paid the price that none of us could pay by giving His own life as a sin offering to God on our behalf.
This is how He frees the birds who are caught in cages. Jesus is the provision for the spiritually poor. To lay hold of His sacrifice requires no riches at all. In fact, it only requires that you acknowledge that you're poor. I find that to be quite interesting. If you're an Israelite and you came to the temple and you only had two turtle doves, what are you saying socially? "I am poor. I am needy." It's a humble thing to do, isn't it? Wouldn't you scratch around in your bank account to find enough to buy the lamb so you didn't have to humble yourself like that? But no, those who came with the two turtle doves to redeem their son know and acknowledge and are quite happy to be seen as humble and poor and needy.
That is what it's like to lay hold of Christ. The birds teach us that God provides even for the poor. And there are many other lessons we could learn from the birds, but for today, I just want you to remember that the birds teach us to humbly depend upon God for all our needs. When you're next feeling full of stress and worry about your bank balance or your future work or your next meal, go for a walk. Look at the birds. Watch them diligently working as they trust in your Heavenly Father's provision for them, and then go and do likewise.
When you feel full of anxiety about your spiritual state or your deeper needs, go outside and look at the birds. Look at the birds of Scripture and see God's incredible provision in drawing near for us. See God bridging the gap between heaven and earth. See God giving you wings that you might dwell forever with Him. See God providing a sacrifice for the poor, and come to Him and be saved from all that worry and all that anxiety.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, You care so much for us, Lord. You provide the birds with their seeds and with their nests and with shelter. How much more so You have provided for us all that we need, all that we could ask or think—indeed, more so, more than we could ask and think. We pray that You would help us to meditate upon this truth that You have woven into creation and through Your Word. Help us, Lord, to depend and to trust upon You. In Jesus' name, Amen.