Each line below is quoted word for word from the King James Version, beginning with the lilies passages and moving to companion verses about worry and trust.
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
Matthew 6:28 (KJV)
In the consider the lilies Bible verse, Jesus moves from the closet to the meadow. Instead of arguing about clothing, he points to a flower and asks you to study it. The command is to look carefully, and what you find is growth without anxious effort, a quiet picture of dependence.
And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Matthew 6:29 (KJV)
In the consider the lilies Bible verse, Solomon is the byword for royal splendor in Israel, yet Jesus says a wildflower outshines him. The point is not that fine things are wrong but that God lavishes beauty even on what is brief and unseen, so he will not neglect you.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Matthew 6:30 (KJV)
Grass was dried and burned as fuel, so Jesus uses the cheapest, shortest-lived thing in the field. If God dresses that, how much more will he care for people made in his image. The gentle rebuke in the consider the lilies Bible verse, little faith, is also an invitation to grow.
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
Matthew 6:31 (KJV)
Here are the three questions that keep most households awake: food, drink and clothing. Jesus names them plainly because he knows them. The consider the lilies Bible verse does not forbid planning; it forbids the restless, fearful rehearsing that treats God as absent from tomorrow’s table.
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
Matthew 6:32 (KJV)
People without a Father chase needs as if everything depended on them. Disciples are different, because they are known. The comfort in the consider the lilies Bible verse is knowledge: your heavenly Father already sees the shortage, the bill and the empty shelf before you speak.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:33 (KJV)
This is the hinge of the consider the lilies Bible verse and the whole passage. Worry is not fixed by trying harder to feel calm but by changing what comes first. Put God’s rule and righteousness at the front of your day, and the necessities are added without being the main pursuit.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Matthew 6:34 (KJV)
Jesus closes with a limit: carry only today’s load. Tomorrow will bring its own troubles and its own grace, but borrowing it early only doubles the weight. The consider the lilies Bible verse ends by giving permission to live one day at a time without guilt.
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Matthew 6:26 (KJV)
The birds come just before the consider the lilies Bible verse, and the logic is the same. Birds work hard to find food, yet they do not hoard or panic. God feeds them, and you are worth more to him, which turns a question about food into a question about value.
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
Matthew 6:27 (KJV)
A cubit is roughly the length of a forearm, and no amount of worrying will make you taller. Within the consider the lilies Bible verse, Jesus uses a small, obvious fact to expose how useless anxiety is. It cannot add to your life, so it is a poor investment of your heart.
Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Luke 12:27 (KJV)
Luke’s version of the consider the lilies Bible verse is shorter and more direct, and it is the form many readers remember. The word consider asks for sustained attention, like studying something worth learning from. The lily becomes a teacher whose lesson is that growth is a gift.
If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Luke 12:28 (KJV)
Luke phrases the consider the lilies Bible verse as a promise: how much more will he clothe you. The reasoning moves from the small to the great, and the wording is warm rather than harsh. Little faith is simply faith that has not yet seen enough of God’s faithfulness.
Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?
Luke 12:24 (KJV)
Alongside the consider the lilies Bible verse, Luke uses ravens, scavengers with no storehouse and no barn, as his example. The picture is deliberately humble: if God provides for the least admired birds, he surely sees you. It is a reminder that provision does not depend on status.
And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.
Luke 12:29 (KJV)
In the consider the lilies Bible verse, doubtful mind describes a restless, hovering spirit that cannot settle on trust. Jesus asks his listeners not to live suspended between hope and dread. The cure is to fix the mind on the Father, which steadies a wavering heart.
But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Luke 12:31 (KJV)
Luke repeats the great priority of the consider the lilies Bible verse in a single line. The word rather sets two pursuits side by side: chasing necessities or chasing the kingdom. Choose the second, and the first is supplied. It is a compact motto for anyone overwhelmed by a long to-do list.
Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Luke 12:32 (KJV)
Just after the consider the lilies Bible verse, Jesus calls his followers a little flock, small and vulnerable, yet addressed with tenderness. God gives the kingdom not grudgingly but gladly. The reason to stop fearing is that your Father enjoys being generous.
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Matthew 6:25 (KJV)
This is the opening of the consider the lilies Bible verse, and it sets the theme: life is bigger than the things we fret over. Meat and raiment are real needs, but they are not the whole of existence. A heart fixed on God can keep the needs in their proper place.
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Philippians 4:6 (KJV)
Paul echoes the same teaching years later. Careful means anxious, and his answer is to turn each worry into a prayer with thanks attached. It is a practical companion to the consider the lilies Bible verse, giving a daily habit that matches Jesus’ invitation to trust.
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
1 Peter 5:7 (KJV)
The reason given for casting your cares is personal: he cares for you. Peter does not ask you to be indifferent but to hand the weight over to someone able to carry it. The consider the lilies Bible verse shows that this care is already at work in creation.
Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Psalms 55:22 (KJV)
David wrote this while betrayed and afraid, so the promise is tested. The LORD sustains, meaning he holds you up from underneath, even when circumstances shake. It pairs well with the consider the lilies Bible verse by reminding us that trust is a decision we repeat.
The consider the lilies Bible verse belongs to the Sermon on the Mount, the long teaching Jesus gave on a hillside in Galilee, recorded in Matthew chapters 5 to 7. The fullest form is Matthew 6:25-34, and a shorter parallel sits in Luke 12:22-34. Because two Gospel writers preserved it, we can be confident that Jesus returned to this theme more than once, speaking to ordinary people who carried ordinary fears about food, clothing and the future.
Matthew places the consider the lilies Bible verse in the middle of a larger argument about treasure, loyalty and trust. Just before it, Jesus warns that no one can serve two masters, God and mammon. Just after it, he turns to judging others. Seen in that setting, the lilies are not a stand-alone nature poem. They are one stage in a sustained call to put God first, and the flower is the illustration that makes the call believable. You can read more of that surrounding teaching on our page about the Sermon on the Mount.
To understand the consider the lilies Bible verse, it helps to picture who was listening. The crowd on that hillside was made up of farmers, fishermen, day laborers and mothers, people for whom a poor harvest or a missed wage meant genuine hunger. Jesus did not speak to wealthy people with imaginary problems. When he said not to worry about what to eat or wear, he was speaking to those who had the most reason to worry.
That fact keeps the consider the lilies Bible verse honest. It is not a scolding from someone who has never felt a shortage. It comes from a teacher who would soon be homeless by choice and who knew hunger himself in the wilderness. His invitation to look at flowers is therefore an act of compassion. He is not minimizing the problem; he is pointing to a bigger reality that makes the problem bearable.
The Greek word behind consider in the consider the lilies Bible verse means to observe closely, to learn by attentive looking. In Luke 12:27 the same verb is used for studying the lilies, and in Luke 12:24 for studying the ravens. Jesus is not asking for a passing glance at a pretty plant. He asks you to slow down enough to be taught by it.
This turns the consider the lilies Bible verse into a spiritual practice. Anxious minds move fast, jumping from one fear to the next. Considering requires stillness. You stand in front of one small thing and let it say what it has to say. Many readers find that ten quiet minutes with a single flower or tree does more for a restless heart than an hour of problem-solving, because it reorients attention from the fear to the Father.
In the consider the lilies Bible verse, Jesus could have pointed to mountains, stars or the sea, but he chose a lily of the field. Most scholars think he had in mind the bright wildflowers that cover the Galilean hills in spring, which bloom briefly and are gone. The choice matters because it is deliberately modest. A wildflower has no gardener, no irrigation and no audience, yet it is clothed beautifully.
The smallness of the example in the consider the lilies Bible verse is the argument. If God pours such care into a plant that lasts a few days, no one can claim he is careless about people who are made in his likeness and called his children. The lily is chosen precisely because it is ordinary, overlooked and short-lived. If it is cared for, so are you.
Solomon appears in the consider the lilies Bible verse as the highest example of human splendor. Scripture describes his wealth, his throne of ivory and gold, and his visitors from distant lands who were left breathless by his court. If anyone could claim to be dressed magnificently, it was Solomon, and Jesus says the flowers beat him without effort.
There is quiet humor and quiet truth in the consider the lilies Bible verse. Human beauty is built by labor, wealth and planning, and it still falls short of what God grows from a seed. The comparison also quietly frees us from envy and status anxiety. If the best that human effort can produce is outshone by a weed in a field, then our fretting about appearance and standing is badly misplaced.
The consider the lilies Bible verse says the lilies toil not and spin not. Spinning was the daily work of women who turned wool and flax into thread, and toil describes any hard labor. The flowers do neither, yet they are clothed. This sentence is easy to misread as an argument against work, so it deserves care.
The consider the lilies Bible verse does not tell anyone to quit a job or stop planning. Elsewhere Scripture praises diligence and warns against laziness. What the lilies teach is that effort is not the source of your life. You may sow, work and plan, but the growth and the provision ultimately come from God. Work becomes thankful stewardship instead of a frantic attempt to secure yourself.
In the consider the lilies Bible verse, Jesus calls his listeners people of little faith, and the phrase is often heard as an insult. It is better understood as a diagnosis given with affection. In the Gospels it describes disciples who truly trust him but whose trust wavers under pressure, as when Peter sank in the waves. It is the faith of a beginner, not the absence of faith.
That makes the phrase encouraging in the consider the lilies Bible verse. You do not have to feel like a spiritual giant to hear this teaching. Little faith can grow, and the lilies are one of the ways Jesus grows it. Each time you notice God’s care in small things, a bit more trust takes root. Our page on faith over fear follows that growth in more detail.
The consider the lilies Bible verse pairs the lilies with the birds of the air in Matthew and the ravens in Luke. Together they form a single argument from creation: the birds picture daily food, the lilies picture clothing and beauty. Between them they cover the two basic needs Jesus names. Neither creature holds a bank account or a pension, yet both are cared for.
The key phrase in the consider the lilies Bible verse is how much more. Jesus does not say that you are equal to a sparrow or a flower. He says you are worth much more to your Father. This is an argument from value, and it is meant to move you from anxiety to confidence. For related reading on God’s care in daily needs, see Bible verses about provision.
Within the consider the lilies Bible verse, right between the birds and the lilies, Jesus asks whether worry can add a cubit to your height or an hour to your life. The question is gentle but sharp. Anxiety feels productive, as if rehearsing every disaster were a form of preparation, yet it changes nothing about the outcome. What it does change is how you live today.
This is why the consider the lilies Bible verse is both spiritual and practical. Medicine and psychology agree that chronic worry harms sleep, health and relationships. Jesus saw this long before and offered a better way. He does not tell you to suppress your concerns but to move them from your own shoulders to the shoulders of a Father who is able to carry them. Compare the verses on worry for more.
Everything in the consider the lilies Bible verse leads to Matthew 6:33: seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. The command is not to stop caring about food and clothing but to rearrange priorities. When God sits at the top, other concerns find their proper size. When he is crowded out, even small worries can seem enormous.
Seeking the kingdom means orienting your day around what God is doing: loving your neighbor, telling the truth, forgiving, praying, serving. Righteousness here is not perfection but a life aligned with his character. The promise is that all these things shall be added. It does not say you will be wealthy, but that you will not be abandoned. Our contentment verses explore what it feels like to live with enough.
The two versions of the consider the lilies Bible verse are very close, but they have different shadings. Matthew has the longer sermon, setting the lilies within a wider argument. Luke records the same saying within a talk about greed and the rich fool, which gives it a slightly sharper edge: do not hoard, do not be anxious, trust.
Luke’s version of the consider the lilies Bible verse also adds the ravens and the line about the little flock, which Matthew omits. Reading both together gives the fuller picture. Matthew shows the clothing and daily-bread theme, while Luke highlights fearlessness and generosity. Neither contradicts the other. They are two faithful records of a teacher who repeated his best lessons, and together they show why the lilies lodged in the memory of the early church.
In Luke 12:29 Jesus adds a phrase not found in Matthew: neither be ye of doubtful mind. The original word suggests being tossed in the air, like a boat in a storm or a cloud blown about. It describes a person whose thoughts never land because every possible outcome pulls on them.
This detail helps explain why the consider the lilies Bible verse works as a cure. A doubtful mind needs somewhere to rest. The flower offers a calm, concrete fact: it is clothed, it is growing, it has what it needs today. By fixing your gaze on that fact, you give your restless thoughts a place to settle. Peace comes not from certainty about the future but from confidence in the one who holds it, as our page on peace shows.
The final verse, Matthew 6:34, gives the consider the lilies Bible verse a practical landing place. Each day has its own troubles, and Jesus asks you to face only those you actually have today. Anxiety usually lives in the future; trust lives in the present. The flower does not worry about winter, because it is busy being a flower today.
The idea in the consider the lilies Bible verse echoes the manna in the wilderness, where God supplied daily bread and Israel was told not to hoard. It also echoes the Lord’s Prayer: give us this day our daily bread. Living in today’s portion does not mean ignoring responsibilities. It means doing what is yours to do now, then releasing the rest. Many people find that this one habit changes the tone of their entire life.
A simple way to practice the consider the lilies Bible verse is to take a short walk and look for one living thing: a flower, a tree or a bird. Stand still and notice its color, its shape and the way it simply receives light and rain. Then read Matthew 6:28-30 aloud and let the verses speak to the specific worry you carry.
Afterward, write down your concern in one sentence and turn it into a short prayer. Thank God for one provision he has already made, ask for today’s portion and name one step that is truly yours to take. Release the rest. Repeating this routine daily, even for a few weeks, trains your heart to answer anxiety with attention to God. For prayer on this theme, see prayer for provision.
There are seasons when the consider the lilies Bible verse can sound naive. A person who has lost a job, received a diagnosis or watched a family member go hungry may wonder where the flowers are. Honest readers should not skip this tension. Scripture itself includes psalms of complaint, and Jesus never forbids you from bringing your hardest questions to God.
The consider the lilies Bible verse does not deny suffering. They assert a deeper reliability: God is a Father who knows what you need. Often his care arrives through people, through work and through slow faithful help rather than a miracle. If your trust feels thin, begin with Philippians 4:6 and a short prayer, and read trusting God in hard times. Trust that is honest about pain is still real trust.
Many readers ask what the consider the lilies Bible verse means for budgets, careers and savings. The passage does not abolish planning, since Proverbs praises the ant that stores food and Jesus himself spoke of counting the cost before building a tower. The target of his warning is the anxious, grasping spirit, not wise preparation.
A healthy reading holds both ideas together. Work faithfully, save wisely, give generously, and refuse to let money become your master. The lilies free you from the illusion that your security comes from your own effort alone. When you see work as stewardship of what God supplies, you can pursue it with energy and rest at night, trusting a Father who knows the real balance of your accounts.
Parents and caregivers often feel the pull of this passage most strongly. They worry about school fees, safety, health and futures they cannot control. The consider the lilies Bible verse speaks directly to them: you are not the final provider for the people you love. God is, and he has more love for your children than you do.
That does not excuse neglect; it relieves you of an impossible burden. A mother can teach her children to notice birds on the windowsill and flowers in the yard and to say thank you for them. A father can pray over the bills with his family. These small habits pass on a living sense of dependence on God, which is a richer inheritance than a guarantee of comfort. See also Bible verses about anxiety.
The consider the lilies Bible verse is one example of a wider biblical habit: learning about God from creation. The Psalms say the heavens declare his glory, and Job is told to ask the beasts and the birds, who will teach him. Jesus joins this tradition when he sends his hearers to the field. The natural world is not God, but it is a faithful witness to him.
This gives the consider the lilies Bible verse a lasting relevance in a world of screens and noise. Time among plants and animals is not an escape from faith but an education in it. You see seasons turn without your management, seeds becoming trees, and weather arriving on a schedule you did not set. All of it whispers the same message: the world is held, and so are you. Our page on creation verses develops that theme.
Paul’s instruction in Philippians 4:6 reads like a commentary on the consider the lilies Bible verse. Be anxious for nothing, he says, but with prayer and thanksgiving make your requests known. Jesus gives the reason to trust; Paul gives the method. The pairing matters, because a verse you only admire may not change you, while a verse you practice often does.
Thanksgiving is especially powerful alongside the consider the lilies Bible verse, because it forces your eyes to the supplies already given. When you list what you have received, your anxiety loses some of its authority. Over time the practice turns worry into worship. After you pray, Paul promises that the peace of God will guard your heart and mind, a promise explored in our verses on peace and worry.
In the consider the lilies Bible verse, Jesus could have lectured on the sovereignty of God, but he held up a flower. Throughout the Gospels he teaches with seeds, sheep, coins, fishing nets and wedding feasts, because pictures lodge in the memory and travel into daily life. A person who has heard a sermon on providence may forget it by Tuesday, but the same person who has once truly looked at a wildflower will think of it every spring.
This is part of why the consider the lilies Bible verse has endured for two thousand years. It does not demand that you win a debate with your fears. It gives you an image you can carry into the kitchen, the office and the hospital waiting room. When anxiety rises, the picture of the lily is there to meet it, quiet and unanswerable, reminding you that you are known and held.
For many believers, this is the real power of the passage. Abstract assurances fade under pressure, but a concrete scene, a field of wildflowers swaying in the wind, can return to the mind at three in the morning. Ask God to give you a few such pictures of his care, and return to them whenever worry tries to write the story of your future.
Beneath every comparison in the consider the lilies Bible verse runs a message about value. You are not like grass that is burned, and you are not like a bird that is fed and forgotten. You are a person made in the image of God, and he calls himself your Father. The how much more of Jesus is a statement of worth as much as an argument about provision.
Many anxious people carry a quiet belief that they must earn their place or that nobody is watching out for them. The lilies challenge that belief at the root. If an unnoticed flower is dressed beautifully, then a person known by name is certainly seen. Receiving this truth does not make you passive. It frees you to serve others from security rather than fear, giving without panic and resting without guilt.
You may find it helpful to read the consider the lilies Bible verse slowly, replacing the word you with your own name. Hearing it addressed to you personally turns general theology into a personal word. Let that sink in for a few minutes each morning, and watch how the weight of daily worry begins to ease.
Heavenly Father, I come to you tired of carrying what I cannot control. You clothe the lilies and feed the birds, and you have promised to care for me. Teach me to look at the world you made and see your faithfulness written in every petal and every sunrise.
Lord, give me my portion for today and quiet the fears about tomorrow. Help me seek your kingdom first, and trust you with the rest. Where my faith is small, make it grow, and let your peace guard my heart and mind. I ask this in the name of Jesus, who taught me to consider the lilies. Amen.
If the consider the lilies Bible verse spoke to you, these related collections continue the theme of trust over worry: Bible verses about flowers, Bible verses about worry, Bible verses about anxiety, Bible verses about trusting God, Bible verses about provision, Bible verses about contentment, Bible verses about peace and worry, Bible verses about God’s faithfulness, Bible verses about overcoming anxiety, Bible verses about inner peace.
To study these verses in more depth, try Bible Gateway, Bible Hub, Bible Study Tools, Blue Letter Bible.
The consider the lilies Bible verse appears in Matthew 6:28-30, within the Sermon on the Mount, and in Luke 12:27-28, part of a similar teaching about anxiety and greed. Both passages record Jesus using wildflowers as a living lesson about trusting God for daily needs.
The consider the lilies Bible verse means to look closely at the wildflowers and learn from them. Jesus uses them to show that God clothes even short-lived plants beautifully, so people, who are far more valuable to him, can trust him for food, clothing and every daily need.
No. Scripture elsewhere praises diligence and wise planning. The consider the lilies Bible verse warns against anxious, grasping worry, not against responsible effort. You work and prepare, but you hold the outcome loosely, trusting that your heavenly Father is the true provider of everything you need.
The consider the lilies Bible verse does not name the exact species. Most readers think he meant the bright wildflowers that bloom across the hills of Galilee in spring. The point is not the botany but the picture of an ordinary, short-lived flower that God dresses in beauty.
The main lesson of the consider the lilies Bible verse is that worry is answered by trust and by priorities. God knows your needs, so seek his kingdom first, receive each day as it comes, and leave tomorrow’s concerns with him. Peace grows when your attention turns from fear to the Father.
The wording of the consider the lilies Bible verse is slightly shorter in Luke, and the surrounding teaching differs. Luke connects the lilies with the ravens, the warning about greed and the line about the little flock. Both record the same promise that God cares for those who trust him.
