Your heavenly Father knoweth.
The antidote to anxiety
I. Reasons against anxiety.
1. Anxiety is a part of indecision of character and partakes of its harmfulness. “No man can serve two masters.”
2. An argument from the greater to the less; God takes care of fowls, He will of men.
3. The impossibilities in the case-“Which of you,” etc.
4. The analogies of nature-“Consider the lilies,” etc.
5. It puts the Christian to shame by showing that he is anxious like the heathen.
6. The character of God-“Your heavenly Father,” etc.
7. The folly of the thing.
II. The magnitude of the sin” of anxiety.
1. It makes you unhappy, which is matter for blame rather than pity.
2. It is a positive wrong done to God; it distrusts him.
3. Do not speak of your anxieties as something for which you are to be commiserated.
4. Never place yourself willingly in a position of worldly anxiety; it is a great hindrance to spiritual life. (A. Vaughan, M. A.)
God’s individual care of His children
A father does not deal with all his children by one and the same universal rule, but with each child individually. For he is acquainted with their separate, especial wants; he knows them as no one else knows them. Therefore, not only have all their portions, but every one the portion he requires. The delicate one is the most shielded,-the timid one is the most encouraged,-the infirm one is the most helped,-the dull one is the most taught,-the tempted one is the most prayed for,-the returning one is the most rejoiced over. And it is the speciality and the appropriateness of the care which makes the great characteristics of paternal government. (A. Vaughan, M. A)