Here are some questions based on last Sunday’s sermon text (Matthew 6:25-34), in case they’re helpful to you for personal growth or group discussion…

• Anxiety is fear about the future. We are anxious because we seek to control our lives and manage the future to provide for our own needs. We feel we must fend for ourselves and establish tomorrow’s life for ourselves, because we cannot believe in God’s fatherly care, we cannot receive life from him as the gift it already is. What kinds of things are you tempted to be anxious about? How do you experience anxiety? Would you describe yourself as a person who struggles with anxiety? Why or why not?

• Jesus invites us to become dependent on the Father, to entrust ourselves to his good care, to be free of the anxiety that attends the autonomous life we have chosen in our sin. What do you think about being utterly dependent on God for all your needs? Do you think he is dependable, trustworthy? Why or why not? Why is it hard to rest in his provision and to receive what you need for life from him as a gift?

• Jesus is proof that the Father is dependable. The Father gave him for our salvation (Rom. 8:32), to feed us with the true food and drink we need for eternal life with God, to clothe us in the glory of his own righteousness. And, in his own life, Jesus demonstrates how good it is for a human to fully entrust himself to God for his life and his future. Even though he suffered great troubles and died, God has provided him with everlasting resurrection life. The promise of the Gospel is that you have the same relationship with the Father that Jesus does, therefore the Father will always provide for you just as he has provided for Jesus. Can you believe that? Have you tasted freedom from anxiety in your relationship with Jesus? What is that like? Can you imagine greater freedom, perfect freedom from the autonomous, anxious human life because of Jesus? Are you interested in talking with others about how Jesus frees us from anxiety?

• FOR THE CHILDREN: Children seem to be a bit better than adults when it comes to not worrying about the future and simply living in the moment. Do you live in the moment with God? Do you thank God for each moment of life? Do you understand that, since God has given you this moment, he will give you the next moment also? Do you understand that God will always love you, forever, and that this is why you don’t have to worry about the future?