“…O ye of little faith ….. do not be anxious…“ Matthew 6:30-31

"But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31 "Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?"

I’ve spent last week looking at the connections between, anxiety, worry and little faith.  We all deal with the same fundamental issues on this side of heaven and our main personal need is to see to it that we remain vitally united to Him in and through every circumstance of life. To be so connected with Him through the storms of life we are simply unmoved by them.  We want to be just like Jesus sleeping in the back of the boat, sailing through life seemingly unaware of the storms raging around us.

 Ellicot’s Expository  notes the following on this phrase ‘little faith’- 

The word is found only in our Lord’s teaching, and the passages in which it occurs are all singularly suggestive. The disciples were not faithless or unbelieving, but their trust was weak. They lacked in moments of anxiety the courage which leads men to rely implicitly on the love and wisdom of their Father. So in the stormy night on the lake, Matthew 8:25 or when Peter began to sink in the waves, Matthew 14:31, or when the disciples had forgotten to take bread, Matthew 17:20; the same word recurs.

All these scriptures show us how care and anxiety are the fruit of little faith.   Vincent’s Word Studies identifies the meaning of care as the thing that divides, distracting the heart from the true object of life, as in "the care of this world," which chokes the good seed (Matthew 13:22;) and Luke 10:41, Of Martha; "Thou art careful”.

It’s in this place of ‘anxious and worry’ cares work into our hearts and ultimately choke the word. We become so ‘distracted’ by the cares that we actually forget what the word has to say about our ‘care’ and then we truly fall into the category of “O ye of little faith”.  Our heart and head are divided.   

If, and it does, faith comes by hearing the word, then to continually feed upon the one thing that assures of us of strength of heart and mind becomes absolutely vital to our daily needs.   

Jesus’ admonition to his disciples is do not be anxious, take no thought, rather consider our value to the Father; His love and desire to care for us and others.  Philippians 4 tells us what to think on and Corinthians reminds us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.  

Let us make His word our meditation. It takes daily determination to attend to the word and keep it in front of our eyes so that the mountain does not conquer us, but we by the grace of God, dismantle it; even if its one rock, one boulder at a time we overcome, for with God nothing is impossible to the one who believes.