One morning, I dressed up for work only to discover that I’d misplaced the key to the car. The car with missing key was at the back of two other cars parked on the premises. One key missing, three cars stranded! The children had to hitch-hike to school that morning. My wife also could not pull out her car. In my desperation, I sent for an auto-electrician; choosing to destroy the ignition system than to waste the whole day. Just then, 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 with strong assurance “framed my worries into prayer.” I asked the Holy Spirit to fulfil His ministry of teaching, reminding and revealing all things.
It was nothing short of a miracle when after prayer I discovered the key. My frustration thawed.
You must be familiar with the hymn WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS. It was originally written by 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.
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.