Turning Worry Into Prayer

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Enjoy it, and please share it around with all your friends. Thanks for listening, and thanks for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Hi, this is Rachel Torres, back with James Banks today for Encouraging Prayer. Our regular host, Robbie Dilmore, has been out with the coronavirus, but he's doing much better and will likely be with us again next week. James, Robbie's being sick gives us a great opportunity to talk about something that's on a lot of our minds, and that is the relationship between prayer and worry.

Yeah, Rachel, I'm glad we're going there today, because this is an area where so many of us just naturally have questions. On my website, jamesbanks.org, we have a prodigal prayer wall where parents can post requests, and yesterday I received one from a mom who wrote, How do you do that when the one you love is running from God? Man, my wife and I really went through that when our daughter was a runaway, and it can be tough.

Yeah, let's talk about that some more. I know you had to be super worried at that time. I mean, any parent would be. If it were my child, I would imagine that I would be so worried that I would have trouble thinking about anything else.

So how do you pray at a time like that? Well, that's a great question, Rachel. It was really hard to stay focused at first, because we felt like we should be out there doing something, you know, like actually looking for her. And we did that. My wife, Carrie, especially wrestled with this. We had been looking for her so hard, but we really weren't getting anywhere, and I began to feel like we were pushing too hard, trying too much in our own strength. And when I told Carrie that, she responded, Well, I pray while I'm looking.

And that's a practical way to go about it. I'm not saying it was wrong, but sometimes prayer is even more practical. You know, we needed to keep looking, but at that point we were so tired and we were hanging by a thread. What we needed to do was just pray more, because we noticed that when we dialed things back and prayed, just doing what we could to trust God to lead us step by step, even though our efforts felt so feeble, still, when we prayed, it was then that we began to see real progress in our search for our daughter. I mean, it was all uphill, you know, but prayer made the difference.

Yeah, absolutely. So was that the way that you eventually found her? Yeah, yeah, it was.

I mean, talk about a God thing. It was Father's Day, and we were going out to eat, but the restaurant we wanted to go to was closed. So we ended up at this other place, and around the corner from that place was a restaurant where our daughter used to work, and we had gone there earlier, and we had asked them, If you ever see her, please let us know. She walked into that restaurant, and somebody recognized her, and we hadn't even gone in when the call came, and we were there within three minutes, and we were able to bring her home. Wow, wow.

That's amazing. So what was the main takeaway from that about worry and prayer? Well, I would say that the lesson we learned from that was the importance of turning our worries into prayer.

We have to be honest with God. You know, you might hear someone say something like, Well, Christians should never worry, but that's actually a denial of what happens a lot in Scripture. Sometimes the circumstances of our lives are such that we can't help worrying, and you see that in Scripture, too. In the one place where Jesus said, Do not worry about your life, that's in Matthew 6.25, and he says, What you will eat or drink, about your body, what you will wear. He was actually talking about material pursuits and our need to trust God with them, and what he was really after was our putting God first in everything. But if you look at his life, there were other times in Scripture where people came to him with worries about their children or their loved ones, and Jesus never rebuked them for that, you know, so he didn't call their worry a sin.

He helped them. And with Easter approaching, it helps to remember God's Word tells us Jesus was in agony as he thought about what would happen to him before he went to the cross when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus wasn't being inconsistent in any of this. He was seeking the kingdom of God first and just being human. This is the beautiful thing about him. It means he fully understands us because he's fully God and fully human, and we can do what Peter said, Cast our cares on him because he cares for us.

Let's get practical with this. How do you turn a worry into prayer? What does that look like when we're praying? This is where prayer is such a gift from God. The beautiful thing is that we can go to Jesus and know that he completely gets us. He understands our hearts even when we can't get the words right and aren't even sure what we're thinking. He still has compassion for us, so we can be ourselves before him because he knows everything that's going on, and we turn our worry into prayer by just giving him whatever's on our hearts at the moment.

Take the whole thing, the whole mess, all that emotion, and just lay it at his feet. We can weep or pace the floor or fall on our knees or plead. We can take, again, whatever's going on, whatever we're wrestling with, and just open up. But usually before we can read that, well, there's something else that has to happen. What's that? Well, we have to realize that most of the time to really receive his peace about something, it takes both time and focus.

Okay. But that can be really hard when your heart and your mind is camped out on just one thing. That's exactly right, and it doesn't mean that we stop thinking about that one thing, but what we have to do is loosen our grip on it a little and learn how to lean into Jesus more. Philippians 4, 6, and 7 tells us to present our prayers and requests to God with thanksgiving, and then it says, And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And that word guard means to surround and protect, and Paul uses the phrase in Christ Jesus, so we can run to him and think of him for even a moment and be thankful for something about him. You know, just focus on him, and he will help us. And this is where it helps to remember his promises, like, peace I leave you, my peace I give to you.

I don't give as the world gives, so don't let your heart be troubled and don't be afraid. The main goal is just to get to Jesus, even if it's only for a second, and be still before him. I can see what you mean about how this can take time, because it's a little like sitting down and sorting things out. Exactly. It does take time to do that, but even a moment in his presence can make all of the difference, because that's all he needs. So it may take us minutes to get to that moment, you know? But if we can be still before him, it's amazing. You might think of him, for example, when he said, peace be still, like he did to the storm. Or you might remember David's prayer in Psalm 23, even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. And our hearts just need to go to him.

Well, James, let's wrap this up by doing that, by asking for his help. Let's pray. Lord, help us to loosen our grip, and to just draw closer to you. Lord, open our hearts, open our minds to you. Bless us, we pray. Help us to turn our worries into prayer, and love you while we do it. In your name. Amen. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you, and encourage you as you pray.