“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?" - Matthew 6:25
The Bible is full of commands.
In Jewish Tradition it is said that the Old Testament contains a total of 613 laws.
The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, and so as Christians we are no longer bound by the Law of Moses.
However, the New Testament itself contains many commands:
Love God with all your heart (Matt 23:37)
Love your enemies (Matt 5:40)
Be sober minded (1 Pe 5:8)
As Christians we are expected to follow the commands of God - both out of love and obedience to Him, and out of an understanding that God's commands are for our own good.
In the sermon on the mount, Jesus tells His followers point blank: do not be anxious.
We are commanded by God not to worry. When we actively engage in anxiety about a situation, we are disobeying God.
Now it must be noted that bodily anxiety is a natural phenomenon that we largely have no control over thanks to the fallen nature of this world. For example, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was clearly experiencing physical anxiety (blood sweated from the pores of His skin).
But the important thing to note is how Jesus responded to this bodily anxiety. He did not seek to numb Himself from it, but rather He went straight to prayer. He did not engage with this attack of anxiety, and so He did not fall into sin.
We cannot control the thoughts that come to us, but we can always control our response to them. Our response will reveal where our faith truly stands. Everytime we actively choose to pursue thoughts of worry and anxiety, we are declaring to God, "I don't trust you."
But by turning to God in prayer in our moments of weakness, we declare the opposite, "The God of the universe is on my side."
We must remember that God does not give us commands so that He can slap us on the wrist when we fail to meet them. He gives us commands because He knows how life works. He knows how human beings work. He knows how we can attain to the "good life" because He Himself is the author of such a life.
He look on flesh and lived as a man to reveal to us the secrets of how to live in this world properly.
All we must do is follow Him.
Do not be anxious about anything,
but in every situation,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.
And the peace of God,
which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds
in Christ Jesus.
Phil 4:6-7
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