Why Worry When You Can Pray

The other day I saw a church sign that read, “Worry is the darkroom in which negatives develop.”  How true that is!

Francis Chan, in his book Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God , made this statement: “Worry implies that we don’t quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what is happening in our lives.  Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control.”  Worry smacks of self-centeredness, self-pity, pride, and control.  Why is it we think this life is all about us?

Who created the earth and us?  Who holds it all together?  Who gives us everything we have, even the breath we breathe?  The same God who gave us the greatest gift of all: salvation, with eternal life and a heavenly home; and we think it’s about us ?

I Cor. 10:31 says, “Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.”  The very purpose of our life is to point to God.  We are to glorify Him because all we are, all we ever hope to be, and all we have is because of Him.

The apostle Paul commands in Phil. 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice.”  The fact that he said it twice shows how important he felt it is.  He continues on in verse 6 saying, “don’t worry about anything…”  It is an impossibility to “rejoice in the Lord” and worry at the same time.

If in our life “we have it all together”, we will never need God; but since we don’t, we should be thankful for the unknowns and our lack of control and run to Him.

As a boy, I can remember singing a song that asked the question, “why worry when you can pray?”  There is much truth there.  If we truly believe that God is in control of our lives and we can trust Him, then let’s give back to Him those circumstances that tend to produce worry and stress.

By Jim Steele, Children’s Bible Ministries

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