50 Days of Prayer – Day 19

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.”  Philippians 4:6 (NLT)  

That great theologian, Erma Bombeck, once said, “Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.” The truth is that worrying is worthless! It's stewing without doing. It can’t change your past or your future; it just wastes time today!  

The good news is that the Bible offers an antidote for your worries. Rather than just telling us not to worry, the Bible tells us what to do instead – replace your worries with prayer! 

And, the news gets even better!   

“… pray about everything.”  

That’s right! You can pray about everything!  There’s not a concern too big for God to handle or a care too small for His concern that you can’t pray about.  If it’s big enough to worry about, it’s big enough to pray about. Here’s a strategy I like to use. Turn your worries into prayer targets. Whatever causes you to worry can become a prayer target for you to focus your prayers on!  Make your worries targets for prayer, and watch God handle them one by one!  Your whole attitude will lighten up as you release your anxieties to God’s care and control!    

God is offering you a choice right now.  You can worry or you can pray.  When you pray, you are giving God your worries and letting Him meet your needs.  Trust me - He’s big enough for the job.  Make a list of the things that cause you to worry and then, commit that list to God in prayer!  Start today in your prayer journal. Then meditate on Philippians 4:6, and you will begin to experience His peace, which exceeds anything we can understand! 

As you pray, don’t forget to thank Him for all He has done. This is one of the most vital aspects of prayer. God inhabits the praises of His people. Thanksgiving is one of the greatest expressions of faith we can make. As we thank Him for all He has done, our faith begins to grow. Soon, we will be thanking Him for all He is going to do with a confidence that drives out worry.