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This morning, as we have been doing on the last Sunday of every month, we are focusing on our Scripture memory verse for the month. For May, it is Matthew 6:33 - But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. The whole passage comes from Jesus’ sermon on the mount, and goes like this:

Matthew 6:25-34 - "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? ²⁸ "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

The problem, according to Jesus, is anxiety, worry, and fear, especially surrounding our basic needs, like food and clothing. The word for worry in Greek is “merinman,” which has the connotation of anxiousness, sleeplessness, fearfulness. Interesting that sleeplessness is part of that. What keeps you up at night? What has you worried to the point of sleeplessness? There is a lot to be anxious about – your children going the wrong way, the distance between you and your wife, your loneliness, the upcoming test, job uncertainty, or a difficult medical situation. This passage deals with a specific type of anxiety, and that is the worries surrounding our basic needs. In some ways, many of us are far from having to worry about our basic needs, but we are all familiar with anxiety.