Fear that fulfills

Mt 6:25-33 - “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? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Anxiety and fear, I think, are sisters. They both feed on the same thing, which is God is not in control and I want to be in control or I am in control or I need to be in control. Anxiety is a lack of trust in God and the recognition that the situation is to big for me to control. Anxiety is fearing harm or loss of something valuable, and thus fear fears the unknowable. Anxiety is merely our body sounding an alarm that I am trying to control something I have no business or ability to control. Someone may say, "I am not fearful. I am just anxious." They are basically the same thing and thus it is necessary for us to treat them as the same evil distraction which seeks to displace the sovereignty and goodness of God from His rightful throne in our lives.

Ps 34:9 - Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.

Anxiety worries over a lack of something or losing something, whereas fearing the Lord leads us to a place of provision and peace so that we lack nothing. It really is one or the other. And the promise awaits fulfillment if we walk in faith and fear of the lord.