CLAREMORE —
“If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who ‘worry their prayers’ are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.” James 1:6-8 (MSG)
Recently, a friend shared her prayers and revelation concerning her adult children and grandchildren, who were traveling to Mexico to visit family. The two adults and three children had set out on their journey around 4 p.m. on a Friday. Because of the threat of thunderstorms, my friend was concerned. Before going to bed that evening, she lifted her family in prayer. However, she was still nervous about their journey until she received a text message around 9:45 p.m. from her daughter.
“Why am I so worried?” my friend asked herself.
Reassured by the text message, my friend went to sleep. Just as she dozed off, however, her husband received a phone call, detailing car problems the young couple had encountered in Texas. As my friend and her husband communicated with their daughter, providing assistance via text messaging and phone calls, her worry took over and my friend thought, “Now what? Gotta do something else.”
Over the next couple of hours, my friend and her husband tried to solve the dilemma, looking up towing services and motels on the Internet and forwarding the information to their daughter. In the meantime, her daughter and family had made their own arrangements. Christina assured her mother, “We are okay. Get some sleep. We’ll talk in the morning.”
Next morning’s conversation between the two still revealed a mother’s worry. Even though the car had been repaired, my friend found herself grilling her daughter. “Did he check the belts and the other hoses?” Christina interrupted, telling her mother that everything was okay and they were back on the road.
Thinking about this incident led my friend to open her Bible and read the first chapter of James. Verses 23-25 say, “For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.”
“It was describing me,” says my friend. “I had looked in the mirror and saw God’s promises. Then I turned away from that ‘mirror of truth’ and returned to my doubtful ways.”
Why do we doubt God’s promises when they are in black and white? Michael Angier, author of “Kicking the Worry Habit,” says, “I came to the awareness that worry is like prayer in reverse.”
Matthew 6:27 says, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” If it did, we’d never give up the habit. Are you worrying your prayers?
Religion
Don’t Worry Your Prayers
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