Moving Beyond Worry: How Prayer Shifts Your Perspective

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What does prayer look like for you?

Is it something you do before meals or at church?

Maybe it’s something you do out of desperation.

Despite how much we say we love God, we often get too busy for him, until something happens and we’re desperate for him to respond to our cries.

Help me Lord! I need a job. I need healing, I need direction. If that answer isn’t quick enough coming we often get frustrated and begin to doubt.

Actually, prayer is just talking to God.

So, whether prayer is a simple part of your everyday life or something that feels overwhelming and you just aren’t sure how to do it, God wants to equip you in such a way that you can speak to him often and intimately.

He wants to provide you with a feasible way to have access to him 24/7. We love things that are open 24 -hours a day, don’t we? It means we don’t have to wait.

That’s the truth.

We don’t have to wait to approach God and instead of being discouraged while we wait for him to answer those prayers we can,

Stop.

Lay our burdens down.

Then, wait from a place of peace, while he restores our soul.

We can be confident that the prayers we are praying are producing something.

Where does that confidence come from? It is Faith.

What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead. “ Hebrews 11:1 (NLT)

Prayer, does something else, it takes our eyes off the mountain before us and places them back on God. This is important, because there are times that we don’t pause long enough to look up from what’s worrying Instead of looking at Him, we focus on how we can change the situation. Next time this happens, keep moving your eyes up, to the one who holds all the answers

This is when peace comes in.

“But without faith it impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him”. Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)

“But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” James 1:6 (CSB)

There was a time that God showed me just how vital it was for me to pray through my worry to the other side, where peace was found.

I chose to stay home with our twins when they were born in 2001. It was a financial struggle for us with 3 children and Micah a young Airman.

I trained to become a Family Childcare Provider at Luke AFB, Arizona. I completed all the required training by the USAF Regulations and USDA to serve meals become a licensed provider.

This provided an avenue to supplement the family budget and allowed me to stay home with our children. I developed wonderful relationships with several families and before Iong, it was regular and steady center and I had a WAIT list.

Wow!!! I was so excited.

Another FCC Provider on the base had a “grudge” against me and didn’t want to see my business continue to thrive.

One sunny afternoon, while at the park, one of the children in my care was playing in the sandbox. We had no idea that there were fire ants in that sandbox.

Another child came and pointed it out to me. I immediately ran over to be sure that he was okay and discovered he had ants on his legs. I quickly wiped them off his body, making sure he was not bitten and removed him from the sandbox. This provider witnessed this and decided to report it as child abuse.

I lost my license during the investigation and was so humiliated to think that others thought I would abuse a child. My husband was a minister on staff at one of the prominent churches in Phoenix, so I was also concerned how this would look to the congregation.

I was so hurt and didn’t want to leave my house. I kept the blinds closed all the time for weeks.

While at church one Sunday, I put in my request for prayer. When I shared my situation, with one of the ladies, she met me and began to teach me how to pray and apply the scripture… before this I had no idea what it meant to be a prayer warrior and how to intercede.

You must keep your eyes on Jesus

I kept my eyes on Jesus, not on what other folks were saying and/or believing. I laugh at myself now, because I remember that she would pray on Friday nights at the church for an hour. She asked me to come one night and I looked at her as if she was crazy. I was thinking to myself, “How could one possibly pray for an hour?’” That was funny…

I agreed to go and it was the beginning of something new for me. The verse she taught me to stand on during that time when I had to remain

Face Forward and Focus on Jesus

I would read the entire chapter often Isaiah 43: 1-7. God was at work changing things.

I was found not guilty.

Not only did I resume business but I filled up the spaces with new families and built new relationships.

God made all things new.

What is one thing you can implement today that will change your perspective when worry comes knocking on the door of your heart?