Pray About It
Hey, y'all!
We are finally at the week before school starts. Can you believe it? Suddenly everything I left behind in May came rushing back to my mental to-do list. There are many reasons that we worry in life: grades, dating, making the team, joining group, money, friends. Honestly, the older you get, the longer that list gets. The great thing is that the Bible tells us how to defeat that worry and anxiety.
In this week's message, Pastor Dre gave us a nugget to take home and think about. He said, "if it's big enough for you to worry about, then it should be big enough for you to pray about.". How many times do we worry and become anxious for days before this even crosses our minds? It reminded me of a scripture in Philippians 4:6-7. It reads, "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.”.
The Bible says it just that simply. Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Easier said than done, I know, but can you agree that anxiety becomes such a waste of energy. The scripture says to let our petitions and praises shape our worries into prayers. Praying doesn’t have to be this grand formal thing. It can simply be whatever your heart is carrying. Cry it out, shout it, whisper it, sing it, whatever you want. Like Pastor Dre said, let anxiety be your signal to pray. Recognize that overwhelming feeling and redirect it!
My brother recently said something to me that had me shook. When we wondered why he hadn't reacted to a situation in a fleshly way, he said, "I prayed for peace and comfort, so I have to stop questioning why I feel fine.". Dude, I screamed! We just want to have a "woe is me" moment so bad! We will pray for God to be in it and fix us but can't recognize when He's done it because we are so caught up in how bad our situation is. We have to learn to let go and trust that God is making it work for our good. When we accept that God is who He says He is and can do what He says He can do, we will feel the peace and comfort He so badly wants to give us.
We are praying for you and with you!
We love you!
Jesse and Marissa
