You must be familiar with the hymn WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS. It was originally written by a preacher, Joseph M. Scriven, as a poem in 1855 to comfort his mother, who was living in Ireland while he was in Canada. The song considers prayer as one of the biggest privileges we have. It opines that the stress and burden will bear is because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. One of the rude shocks we will have when we get to heaven is how little we tapped into the power of prayer.

…whatever is worth worrying about is worth praying about.

You can overcome a life of worries and stress if you take our text literally. I always like to say that whatever is worth worrying about is worth praying about. I can relate to this in a practical sense. At the time my family and I made our home in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria, I dressed up for work one morning and could not remember where I placed the key to the car. Two other cars were parked in front of it, so there was a stalemate. I was at the verge of asking the electrician to destroy the ignition system when the words of our text rang in my spirit. It is so beautifully worded in the Message translation. “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.” I quietly knelt by my bed and asked the Holy Spirit to show me the whereabouts of the key. Miraculously, I found it not long after that. You can regain what you’ve lost by the help of the Holy Spirit.