Turning Worry Into Prayer

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Enjoy it and please share around all your friends. Thanks for listening and thanks for choosing the truth. Podcast network. This is the Truth Network encouraging prayer, God offers an open invitation for his people to talk with him at any time about anything, and encouraging prayer Dr. James Banks, author of the best-selling peripheral product and many other books on prayer provides weekly biblical insight help you learn to mom and now this is Rachel Torre back with James Banks today for encouraging prayer regular host Robbie don't work out with the coronavirus, but he's doing much better and will likely be with us again next week.

James Robbie's being sick gives us a great opportunity to talk about something that's on a lot of our minds and that is the relationship between prayer and worry you, Rachel. I'm glad were going there today. Because the memory were so many of us just naturally have questions on my website. James Banks got work. We have a prodigal prayer wall where parents can post requests and yesterday I received one from a mom who wrote. Please pray for me to stop worrying and to trust that my daughter is in God's hands. But how do you do that when the one you love is running from God man might my wife and I really went through that when our daughter was a runaway and it can be tough and let's talk about that somewhere. I know you had to be super worried.

At that time and any parent would be if it were my child. I would imagine that would be so worried I would have trouble thinking about anything else.

So how do you pray at a time like that.

What the great question, Rachel was really hard to stay focused at first because we felt like we should be out there doing something, you know, like, actually looking for and we did that my wife Carrie especially wrestled with this weird looking for her so hard, but we really weren't getting anywhere and I began to feel like we were pushing too hard trying too much in our own strength and I told Carrie that she responded well II pray will I'm looking a practical way to go but not think it was wrong, but sometimes prayer is even more practical. You know we we needed to keep looking but at that point we were so tired and we were hanging by a thread. What we needed to do was just for anymore because we notice that when we dial things back and prayed just doing what we could to trust God to lead a step-by-step. Even though our efforts felt so people still when we prayed.

It was then that we began to see real progress in our search for our daughter it was all uphill, but but prayer made the difference absolutely so was not the way that you eventually found her yeah yeah it was talk about a God thing.

It was Father's Day. We were going out to eat, but the restaurant we wanted to go to was closed so we ended up at this other place and around the corner from that place was restaurant where her daughter used to work and we had gone there earlier and we had asked them if you ever see her please let us know will while we were sitting there in our car and already to go into a restaurant two blocks away.

She walked into that restaurant and somebody recognized her and we hadn't even got in when the call came and we were there within three minutes and we were able to bring her home while it's amazing.

So what was the main take away from that amount worrying prayer will I would say that the lesson we learned from that was the importance of turning our worries into prayer. We have to be honest with God, you might hear someone say something like, well, Christian should never worry, but that's actually a denial of what happens a lot in Scripture.

Sometimes the circumstances of our lives are such that we can't help worrying, and you see that in Scripture to the one place where Jesus said do not worry about your life that's in Matthew 625 and he says what you will eat or drink about your body, what you will, where he was actually talking about material pursuits and our need to trust God with them and what he was really after was are putting God first in everything but if you look at his life. There were other times in Scripture where people came to him with worries about their children or their loved ones and Jesus never rebuked them for that. You know, so he couldn't call their worry sin. He helped them and with Easter approaching it.

It helps to remember God's Word tells us Jesus was in agony as he thought about what would happen to it before he went to the cross.

We prayed in the garden of Gethsemane Jesus wasn't being inconsistent in any of this. He was seeking the kingdom of God first and just being human. This is the beautiful thing about him. It means he fully understands us because he's fully God and fully human. We can do what Peter said. Castor cares on him because he cares for us. Let's get practical with this.

How do you turn away into prayer. What is that look like Linda praying this is where prayer such a gift from God. The beautiful thing is that we can go to Jesus and know that he completely gets us.

He understands our hearts even when we can't get the words right in our even sure what were thinking. She still has compassion for us so we can be ourselves before because he knows everything that's going on in and we turn the war into prayer by just giving him whatever's on our hearts. At the moment take the whole thing. The whole mass all that emotion just lay it at his feet. We could read or paste the floor or fall on our knees or plead we can take again. Whatever's going on, whatever will wrestled with just open up, but usually before we can read that well there something else that has to happen.

What's that will we have to realize that most of the time to really receive his peace about something. It takes both time and focus okay but I can be really hard when your heart and your mind is camped out on just one thing that's exactly right.

And it doesn't mean that we stop thinking about that one thing, but what we have to do is loosen our grip on it a little and learn how to lean into Jesus more Philippians 4, six and seven tells us to present our prayers and requests to God Thanksgiving and then it says the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And that would guard means to surround and protect and use race in Christ Jesus, so we can run to him and think of him for even a moment and be thankful for. Something about him you know just focus on him and he will help us in this is where it helps to remember his promises like peace I leave you my peace I give to you. I don't give us the world gives. Don't let your heart be troubled, and don't be afraid.

The main goal is just to get Jesus even if it's only for a second and be still before him and see which you mean about how this can take time. It's a little like sitting down and sorting things out exactly it does take time to do that. But even a moment in his presence and make all of the difference because that's all he needs to start my take us minutes to get to that moment but but if we can be still before him. It's amazing you might think of him. For example, when he said, peace be still like you did the store or you might remember David's prayer in Psalm 23. Even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me in our hearts just need to go to him when James set this up by doing asking for his help. Let's pray Lord help us to listen to just draw closer to you. Hearts open our minds to you. Bless us, pray, help us to turn our prayer hear more from Pastor James by visiting the website James Banks.org or by visiting these church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you.

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