For some people, prayer has become simply worrying out loud. You hear it in their voices when they pray aloud in a group; you see it in their expressions when they utter their prayer requests.
Maybe you aren’t a chronic worrier, but you’ve experienced enough apprehension about the terrible possibilities in life to know that anxiety is jeopardizing your faith relationship with God. You know it’s time to gain control over the anxiety that has crept into your life.
You also know how to do that. You need to cast your cares on Jesus, because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7). But knowing that and doing that aren’t the same thing. Maybe you need a fresh way of understanding how that happens.
Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers (Philippians 4:6 msg). That’s how a popular paraphrase of the Bible describes the process of casting your cares on God in prayer. Ask God for what you need, praise God for who he is, and watch as those constant worries become transformed into peace-producing prayer.
Faith in God cancels out worry, but the opposite is also true: worry cancels out faith in God. Don’t allow worry to displace your faith in God—you’ve come too far to let that happen now.
Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.
Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
This article is excerpted from The Indispensable Guide to Practically Everything: Prayer.
