Sometimes I find myself approaching prayer as an opportunity to "worry online." This concept was pointed out to me by Jim Berg, in his study series titled "Quieting a Noisy Soul: Overcoming Guilt, Anxiety, Anger, and Despair". It's as if I enter the front door, dump the jumble of paraphernalia in my arms onto the entry way table, and flop in a heap on the sofa. Here are my jumble of thoughts and worries, Lord, and this is why they are so troublesome to me. What about.., and what if.. and I'm worried that.. and I feel like... There is certainly a role for this type of prayer, especially when I am able to use it as a starting place. In fact, it is a powerful and authentic place to start. But at times, I park it there, and ruminate over the jumble of needs and fears and uncertainties I'm carrying, and treat God as a bystander with nothing real to contribute to my dilema. As if He were just a warm body standing by. I emerge from this time of prayer, much the way I entered it: distracted, burdened down, and fixated on a myriad of possible outcomes.
Instead, I want to come to God with the realization that He is "more than enough". I long to remember the assurance that He knows and loves me personally, that He will wisely do what is best, and that He stands ready to give me, and the ones I love, "grace to help in time of need."
Renew my mind, dear Lord. You take center-stage, and enable me to see what I am facing in the light of Who You are and What You can do. I can then emerge from a time of prayer with the peace that God in HIs love, sovereignty, and wisdom will do what is best.
1 comment:
Julia, you're expressing something here that a lot of us do, perhaps without really being aware of what we're doing. You make such an important point that I wonder if you'd consider turning this into an article for publication. This is a message that could be very helpful to many.
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