Week 6 | See: From Anxiety to Silence

As we navigate through life, there is much we do not understand which can leave us feeling quite insecure. We experience things beyond our control which leads us to feel insecure about the future. God created us with a need to know we are secure. This is why we often scan our environment to try to find something that is stable – something that will provide a sense of security. 

The world promises us that we will find security if we have the right things. Finances are usually at the top of the list. It may also be possessing the right education, having the right friends, living in the right neighborhood, or working at the right job. The temptation is to define ourselves by what we have as we seek to have certainty in an uncertain and ever-changing world. 

Consider ways that you look to “what you have” to provide a sense of security. Pause for a moment, and pray, asking the Lord to search your heart.

As Jesus taught about anxiety and fear in Matthew 6, He encouraged us to behold or contemplate the birds and flowers. However, Jesus also acknowledged the possibility that our eyes could be unhealthy and we are unable to see:

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! (Matt 6:22–23)

Our ability to contemplate God’s goodness and presence in our lives is predicated upon the quality of our spiritual vision. It is possible that unhealthy eyes keep the light from coming into our lives. What makes our vision healthy versus unhealthy? Notice the previous verses:

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. (Matthew 6:19–21)

If we try to look through the lens of treasuring “what we have,” we will not see. If we look through the lens that sees God as our treasure, we will see in a way that show us we are secure. Jesus leads us to consider what we are seeking. Are we seeking certainty through hoarding (“laying up treasures for ourselves”) the things we believe will calm our anxieties? Or, are we seeking God in all things?

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.  (Matthew 6:24)

Jesus made the distinction clear: you cannot seek/serve God if you are seeking/serving possessions. If our treasure is with God, that is where is our heart will be. It is with the eyes of our heart that we see. Julian of Norwich wrote: “The soul that sees God sees all things in God.” We see God through the birds and the flowers if the treasure of our heart is God Himself. We see what we are seeking. It has been said, “We don’t see the world as it is; we see the world as we are.”

So, in this reflection about our eyes and treasure, Jesus invited a critical question: What is your treasure? Or, What do you want? In essence, we get stuck in a cycle of anxiety if our eyes are clouded by seeking certainty in what we have. If we want God, we will see Him and we will experience a security that can only come from Him.

Paul echoed this in his first letter to Timothy:

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:17–19)

Pause here for a moment and consider: What is my hope for security? Sit with this question in prayer – listening to what God may bring into your awareness. As you notice any sense of your hope being in “what you have,” gently release that and turn the gaze of your heart to His gaze. Treasure Him and give thanks that He richly provides everything for you to enjoy.

Prayer: Lord, I desire to seek You. Help me to see how I treasure other things. Help me also to seek You as my treasure in all things. Amen.