Shaping worry into prayer

I love Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of Phil.4:6-7. "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."

So simple, yet so profound. Now if we can just do it. Today. Then tomorrow. And then the next day. When we feel our minds starting to fret, pray. Choose to shape those worries that are disturbing your peace and preoccupying your heart, into prayers and petitions. It starts right at the thought stage. When that little niggling fear or worry or anxious seed begins to form, stop right then and there and reshape it into the form of a prayer. A trusting prayer that lifts it up to the omnipotent, omniscient, merciful, just, and righteous Lord of all. Hand it to Him in thankfulness and trust that He can handle it completely and perfectly and rightly.

And when the next worry starts to form, reshape that one into a prayer as well. And just keep on doing it, over and over again. As we do this consistently, faithfully, we will find ourselves peaceful and joyful and thankful no matter our circumstances. He will settle us down, calm our anxious hearts and order our chaotic thinking.

Thank You Lord for the gift of Your Word that encourages and inspires and instructs us. And thank You for the gift of Yourself so that we know that we are never ever alone, never without hope, never without the One who enables us to transform our worries into prayers that are always heard. To You, the Savior of perfect peace, be the glory.