Read Matthew 7 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
Yeshua gives us several keys in yesterday’s and today’s chapters to overcome anxiety. Let’s look at a matching pair in the Matthew 6:1-34 Chiastic Structure Teaching Tool:
Mat 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread;
Mat 6:25-34 Do not worry about your needs, but seek God first.
When we include in our daily prayer a request for the things that we need for that day, then we have assurance against anxiety, when we set our priorities in their proper order and seek God and His righteousness first, that the things that we need will be added to us. It might not be that everything that we might want will be added to us, but everything that we might need.
Now for the Mat 5:1-8:1 Chiastic Structure Teaching Tool:
Look at the F pair:
Mat 6:1-34 If you forgive, your Father in heaven will forgive you/ Do not worry;
Mat 7:7-11 Ask, seek, knock/ If you give what is good, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things.
Notice that the Do not worry admonition from Mat 6:25-34 is paired with the Ask, seek, knock admonition of Mat 7:7-8. The verbs for “ask,” “seek,” “knock” in the Greek are in the continuous imperative present, so that if it was translated into English as accurately as possible, it would read:
Ask and keep on asking, and it shall be given to you; seek and keep on seeking, and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking, and it shall be opened to you. For every one who asks and keeps on asking, receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking, finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, it shall be opened. Mat 7:7-8
Yeshua is telling us what to do in order to overcome anxiety: if we have a need, ask God to meet it (assuming we are working six days at our labor, and resting on the seventh). And not just a weak one-time ask. If it is something we really need, then ask and keep on asking until it is provided (Luk 11:5-13). Worrying, after we have done these things, is a red flag on top of a hill in our heart that says, “I do not believe that God’s words are true, and I have placed the fears spoken by the enemy above (as an idol) the promises spoken by God.”
In order to combat that red flag, every time we experience the emotion of worry, we can say to ourselves: “I reject that lying fear of the enemy, and I receive the true promise of my Father in heaven, who has promised __repeat Scripture__ that He will provide for the things I have asked!”
If there are questions, these are good resources:
Training to Believe and Feel Truth – Christine Miller
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