“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)
This is one of the best “calm me down” scriptures that I know of regarding worry and you’ll notice that it all has to do with the practice of prayer. It tells me to let God take my worry when things are not working out very well and in exchange He will give me His peace.
I also like Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of this same passage in The Message, “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.”
Perhaps some of you will remember the story of Corporal Jacob DeShazer, who was one of the men shot down over Tokyo in the famous Doolittle bombing raid of World War II. On the night of his capture his mother became extremely worried about her son and felt compelled to pray even though she had no idea of where he was or what he was doing. She remarked, “I awakened suddenly one night with a strange feeling like I was being dropped down, down, down through the air. Oh, the terrible burden that weighed my soul! I prayed and cried out to God in my distress. Suddenly the burden was gone.” She later learned that at that precise time her son was parachuting from his falling plane.
After DeShazer’s capture and imprisonment, his mother again felt great anxiety compelling her again to intercede for her son. Strange as this may seem, she later learned that again at that precise time, God was speaking to her son in his prison cell and he surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. Soon after his conversion it was announced that all prisoners would be executed. Again, his mother felt compelled to cry out to God to watch over her son, and almost immediately she said her intense burden of worry lifted. Instead of being executed, Jacob was soon released as the war suddenly ended. But God saved him for an even greater purpose. You see, after the war Jacob DeShazer returned to Japan and spent the rest of his life preaching Christ to the Japanese people.*
So my friends, worry accomplishes little except to create more worry. God says to give your worry to Him through prayer and He will take it from there. Oh, what a mighty God we serve. He always has a greater plan and His peace passes all understanding!
*Alvin J. Vander Griend with Edith Bajema, The Praying Church Sourcebook, Church Development Resources, p.264.
