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. Philippians 4:4-7

Do you see that last part, it’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life?  That’s relationship.  When you are praying, you are simply talking with God.  It’s like a five-year-old who hears the wind and the rain and is scared.  Where do they go to find peace?  When they go to their mom or dad and jump into their lap, they can feel the warm hug.  What happens in their life?  Worry is displaced from the center of their life.

That’s for you too.

Maybe the best thing we can do today is to have moments when we go to dad [God] and jump on his lap and allow him to hug us.  And maybe we need to just stay in prayer long enough for worry to be replaced with God’s presence.

One last quick thought.  Notice that the five-year-old takes their eyes off of themselves to find mom or dad.  Notice that prayer, or talking with dad, it is about taking our eyes off of us and focusing on God.  Notice what Jesus taught.

Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace. Matthew 6:6

That’s prayer.  That’s relationship.  That’s for you.

 

5 things to talk to your dad about.

Pray that God would place a hedge of protection around you and your home and your family to protect you and give you peace.  Pray for courage.  Pray for love.

Pray that this crisis would open the eyes of our community to see our need of God.  That our community would turn to God in prayer and ask God into their hearts and homes.

Pray that our communities would heal and unite.

Pray for our leaders to have the wisdom to know what do to and the courage to do it.

Sometimes, praying scripture helps when we are struggling.  Here is Psalms 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.