How to Have a Quiet Heart

Luke 12:22-31

INTRODUCTION

When I was a child, my mother used to call me a “worry wort” because I was a gloomy kid who always expected the worst.

Sometimes she called me Eyore. Do you remember Eyore? He was the little donkey in the Winnie the Pooh stories who was always gloomy. If it was fine day, he would look up at the sky and say gloomily, “I think it’s going to rain.”

I agree with the man who said, “An optimist is a guy who hasn’t had much experience.”

I remember my first day in the army as a draftee during the Korean War. The sergeant lined us up and gave us this advice: “Expect the worst, and you’ll never be disappointed.”

That’s true, but it’s a miserable way to live, isn’t it?

John Calvin, the great Christian reformer, preacher, and theologian gave this advice to preachers. He said, “If a preacher is not first preaching to himself, better that he falls on the steps of the pulpit and breaks his neck than that he preaches that sermon.”

I’m following John Calvin’s advice. The scripture I’ve chosen to speak about this afternoon is one that I need to hear and hear over and over again.

THE TEXT

Luke 12.22-31: And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Fr life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, 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, which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O people of little faith! And do not seek what you re to eat and what you are to drink, nor be of anxious mind. For all the nations of the world seek these things; and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things shall be yours as well.

Jesus said quite a bit about worry. A great Bible expositor said this: “There is scarcely any one sin against which our Lord Jesus more largely and earnestly warns his disciples, or against which he arms them with more variety of arguments than the sin of disquieting, distracting, distrustful cares about the things of this life, which are a bad sign that both the treasure and the heart are on the earth.” (Matthew Henry)

I. Let’s look more closely about what Jesus said in the text we just read.

A. Jesus tells us that the birds go about their business without care about where their next meal was coming from and they get fed. The lilies don’t worry about clothes and they are clothed more beautifully than Solomon in all his glory.

Food and clothes aren’t the things we worry about. But for the people Jesus was talking to, food and clothing were matters of great concern.

They lived on the edge of starvation. I figured once that Charlotte and I spend about 6% of our income for food. The people Jesus was talking to spent almost all of their income on food. They didn’t have pensions or money in the bank, and they often didn’t know where their next meal was coming from.

That’s one reason Jesus taught them to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Getting enough to eat was a great concern for the poor people of Jesus’s day, and most of the people in those days were what we would call “poor.”

Clothes were also a problem in a time when every thread had to be spun by hand, every piece of cloth had to be woven by hand, and every stitch had to be made by hand.

This is one reason why Jesus pronounced a blessing on those who “clothed the naked.”

No, we worry about other things:

We worry about our increasing physical weakness.

We are anxious about keeping our memory until the end of life.

We are concerned with whether we will have money if we need more expensive healthcare.

We wonder whether our faith in God will stay bright.

We worry about our children and grandchildren.

Right now, Charlotte and I are trying to sell our house. It is easy to worry about that.

These are some of the worries that destroy our peace of mind.

B. But even though we may have much cause for anxiety, Jesus reminds us that worry can’t really change anything. In verse 25 he reminds us that worrying can’t add even a little bit to our span of life.

II. So how can we stop being anxious?

A. We can’t stop being anxious just because we want to—just like we can’t cure an itch by trying not to think about it.

I remember a time of great trouble in the life of our family.

Someone said, “Just cast your care on God. He will care for you.”

That’s scripture, but it wasn’t very helpful to me at the time. I knew that verse, but I was still anxious.

But even though I was anxious, I kept trying to live for God.

I kept doing the things God had given me to do.

I didn’t give up on God.

I continued to go to church. I continued to teach my Sunday school class.

I continued to read the Bible and pray.

Jesus never promised a perfectly tranquil life. One time he said, “I have said to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

There’s a kind of peace that we can experience even when our world is in turmoil.

B. Sometimes I go to bed anxious and can’t get the anxious thoughts out of my head. So I lie there trying to figure out how things can work out.

I have never gotten over my habit of being anxious. But I try to bring my anxieties to God.

When I find myself stewing about something like this. I preach myself a little sermon.

I say to myself:

“You are a Christian believer. You trust God with your life. You should be handling this better than you are. Now you need to pray about this and turn your thoughts to God.”

I think about the things I am thankful for.

I think about how God has delivered me from troubles in the past.

I think about the problems other people face. That helps get mine into perspective.

I pray  for others in trouble.

I remind myself of God’s promises for the future.

I say to myself, “Now I’m resting in Jesus; I’m resting in Jesus.”

I recall some prayers from the Bible.

I do a lot of my praying in bed while I wait  to go to sleep.

It’s a fine thing  to go to sleep praying—as long as you don’t go to sleep too soon.

Here is one of my every-night prayers. It is from Psalm 4:

“In peace, I will both lie down and sleep;

for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”

Another psalm I use when I am anxious is from Psalm 73. In this psalm, the writer tells about how anxious he had become because of the injustice in the world. Then he says,

“Nevertheless I am continually with you;

you hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will receive me to glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.”

Almost every day I pray a prayer I found in a book of prayers by medieval believers. I love this prayer, and it helps settle my mind:

“Above all the things I desire,

grant to me Lord, that I may rest in you,

and that my heart may find its peace in you.

You are my heart’s true peace. You alone are its rest.

Without you I am burdened with anxiety that is hard to bear.

In this peace, then, that is in you,

who are my one supreme and eternal good,

I will sleep and take my rest.”

CONCLUSION

Do you see what is happening to me when I think about things in this way and when I pray prayers like these?

What is happening is that I am filling my mind with thoughts of God and eternal things rather than with anxious thoughts about what might happen.

My mind can’t be filled with two things at once, and as I remind myself of God’s love and care…

and when I pray and turn my mind to God and the things that have eternal value…

then my mind becomes calm, and I can rest in the Lord.

A great preacher of long ago said these true words: “I sought the Lord, and the dove of peace flew in. I sought the dove of peace, and he flew out again” (C. H. Spurgeon).

That’s what Jesus meant when, at the end of his message about not being anxious about things, he said, “Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things shall be yours as well.”