Breaking the Cycle of Worry with Trust

Encountering Jesus

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

July 26, 2026

Breaking the Cycle of Worry with Trust

Let’s turn to Matt. 6. If you go online and search the topic anxiety you’ll find conferences, seminars, and ted talks explaining how to overcome worry. You’ll find books with titles such as:

• Don’t Feed the Monkey Mind: How to Stop the Cycle of Anxiety, Fear, and Worry
• Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind
• Anxiety as an Ally: How I Turned a Worried Mind into My Best Friend.

I think the word cycles paints an accurate picture of the way worry works. I don’t know about you but when I am worried about something I turn it around and around in my head. Somehow worries get bigger at night – ever notice that? Our minds cycle through the same thoughts again and again. Once we take care of one problem, something else to worry about pops up and the cycle starts all over again. One what if leads to another what if and our minds can start imagining and worrying not only about things that are happening but we start worrying about things that might happen! To break the cycle of worry we need something stronger than worry.

That something, Jesus says, is trust. Trust in our loving heavenly Father and His care over us.

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 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? ²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ²⁸ And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ 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? ³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

³⁴ “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matt. 6:25-34

Let’s pray.

The people sitting in front of Jesus had very real things to worry about. Life and death worries. Most of them lived day to day depending on a successful harvest or finding work from day to day. They could lose everything through illness or famine. They didn’t have savings accounts, or insurance, and a welfare system safety net to catch them.

Jesus knows they have legitimate things concerning them and he doesn’t minimize the importance of these things. Jesus knows the concerns that weigh on your heart this morning too. He doesn’t minimize them. God cares about our fears and worries. The most frequent command in the Bible is “do not be afraid” because God knows fear is a real struggle in our lives especially when we’re facing a crisis or a big change or a daunting challenge.

Jesus doesn’t minimize their concerns, he calls them – and us - to a life of trust instead of worry. Worry says what if? Trust says even if. We can break the cycle of worry by trusting our heavenly Father’s care over our lives. Jesus unpacks four reasons we should trust rather than worry.

1. Life is more than the things we worry about

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 

Worry has a way of getting us so focused on things of less importance that we can lose sight of what’s really important. Anxiety tends to get in our face and narrow our thoughts until all we see is that thing we’re worried about. Worry does a number on our perspective.

I remember reading some years ago about a man who was trying to retrieve his cell phone from a storm pipe, got his head and shoulder stuck in the pipe, and even though people tried they couldn’t pull him out in time and he drowned. We can drown in worry reaching for relatively unimportant things.

Jesus isn’t minimizing the concerns we all face. He’s saying keep them in perspective. Don’t lose sight of how precious life is. Life is this amazing, beautiful, gift from God. Your life is more than the sum parts of it. We need food to live but life is more than food. We need clothing and shelter and money to pay the bills but life is more than those things. Every day we wake up is a gift from God. The people we love and who love us is a blessing to our lives from God. Jesus asks, is life not more important than the things we’re worried about.

2. Look at your heavenly Father’s faithfulness to provide

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? ²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ²⁸ And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ 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?

Jesus says look at the birds of the air. Janice and I get a lot of pleasure watching the birds around our house. It always amazes me at how well God has equipped birds to live their lives. Robins, for instance, use all their senses to catch worms and insects. They primarily depend on their eyesight so when you see a robin cocking its head it’s probably looking for subtle movement in the soil. It also listens for movement and even uses its feet to feel for movement. You know what a robin doesn’t do? Worry. They don’t sow or reap. They don’t build barns to stock up on bugs. Our heavenly Father feeds them.

Jesus asks are you not of more value than they? In the colder months we hang bird feeders in our back yard to feed the birds that are crazy enough to stay up here through the winter. We spend money to feed them. I trudge out there in the cold and snow to fill the feeders because the birds come to depend on them for food. We care about them. But there’s no comparison between how much we care for them and how much we care for our kids. We’d lay down our lives for any one of our kids. On their worst days we love them with all our hearts. They are infinitely more valuable to us than the birds.

Jesus says that’s how your heavenly Father feels about you! When he was here Dale Ingraham made the point that you can know the value of something by the price someone is willing to pay for it. Our heavenly Father was willing to give us His Son to die for us in order to save us and reconcile us and adopt us.

The cross speaks love over us. Jesus loved us so much he gave his life for us. God the Father loved us so much He endured the pain of watching His Son suffer so that we could be adopted as His children. See what love the Father has lavished on us!

Jesus says if our heavenly Father feeds the birds of the air and clothes the lilies of the field, and He loves us infinitely more than those things, we can be confident that He will provide for all our needs. Jesus is not saying “don’t work.” He’s saying don’t worry. God expects us to work and plan and budget and do all the things we are responsible to do. He doesn’t want us to worry. Trust your heavenly Father’s faithfulness to provide all that you need.

3. The cycle of worry can be broken by living for a bigger and better ambition

²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?...³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

We saw last week how behind the question what are you worried about? Is the deeper question, what are you living for? Worries often reflect misguided priorities. Here’s the dirty little secret about worries: they promise to make things better. They lead us to believe that if we worry long enough and often enough life will get getter. Worry whispers to our mind: I can help you get control of things. But worry is unproductive and unhelpful. Worry gives us zero control. It can’t even add one single hour to our life.

Worry doesn’t add good things, it adds bad things. It adds stress and sleepless nights, high blood pressure, and ulcers. These might take a few hours off our lives but they don’t add anything good.

Jesus says get a better ambition. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything

else you need will be added to you. The Gentiles (shorthand for those who aren’t in a covenant relationship with God) live for food and drink and clothing. That’s their ambition: more money, better food, fancier clothing, faster cars, bigger homes, higher paying jobs. Those are small ambitions compared to seeking the kingdom of God!

So what does seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness mean? The kingdom of God is what Jesus is talking about throughout the sermon on the mount.Seeking the kingdom of God means being peace-makers. Being merciful and compassionate. It means refusing to be controlled by anger or lust. We are seeking the kingdom when we give generously without fanfare or pray for others. When we seek to be salt and light in this world. God’s heart is for people to be saved so when we love people and tell them the gospel we are investing in the kingdom of God.

Seeking His righteousness means receiving Christ’s righteousness by faith. We could never enter heaven by our own righteousness, so we trust that Christ has made us righteous as a gift.

Do you see how seeking first the kingdom reorders our entire lives? Instead of pursuing the things we need, they pursue us! When we take care ofGod’s interests, God takes care of our interests. We can break the cycle of worry by living for a bigger and better ambition.

If you're going through a time where anxiety is very real, don't let it make you pull in the sidewalks in life and shrink your life down to that one thing. Trust in your heavenly Father and sow kingdom seeds in other directions. If money is a major concern, don't stop being generous, sow seeds of generosity. If you feel emotionally drained, don't stop giving and hoard what energy you have (unless for a short time), give to others and look to your Father to supply what you need. Seeking first the kingdom replaces anxiety with trust in our heavenly Father.

4. Kingdom ambition replaces worry about the future with daily trust

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:34 ESV)

A lot of fear is located in the future. What’s going to happen tomorrow? What if a bad thing happens tomorrow? What if a good thing doesn't happen tomorrow? Worry about tomorrow can make us lose today. And then when tomorrow becomes today, we worry about the next day. It’s a never-ending cycle but trust in our heavenly Father and ambition for His kingdom has the power to break that cycle. What if is replaced with even if.

Jesus doesn’t promise a trouble-free life. Just the opposite. Today will have its troubles. But even if things get tough, we have God’s promise to see us through. Even if we face daunting giants we have God’s promise to be with us. Even if life throws a curveball at us, our God will work all things together for our good.

God will give you grace today for the troubles you face today. He will give you grace tomorrow for the troubles you face tomorrow. Don't expect tomorrow's grace today. Give us this day our daily grace.

If you're in a stressful season, God knows and cares. Don't think for a moment that because the trial isn't lifting immediately that God doesn’t care. Lay your cares on the altar and trust in your heavenly Father.

Let's pray.