How to Pray More and Worry Less {3 Simple Steps}

Worry and anxiety used to keep me trapped in seemingly endless cycles of fear, people-pleasing, distraction, and sin. While I still face many of the same struggles in life, I have never felt more confident in my relationship with God and strong in the fight against anxiety. I’m sharing how in today’s video, so you too, can live with less worry and more faith. Enjoy!

Why worry when we can pray? In fact, the Bible says that instead of worrying, we should pray because it’s then that we are protected from the torment of anxiety and receive the peace of God. How can we practically do that when anxious thoughts seem to take over our thoughts? 

In this video, you will learn:

• 🙏🏾 The connection between worry and prayer.
• 🔄 3 steps to turn your worries into prayers.
• 💥 How to stop wasting your time and energy on worrying.

But first, I want to share with you one thing that I've learned about worry that changed my entire perspective about it and set me on a journey toward true healing. I learned that worry is essentially the opposite of prayer. Prayer is when we take our thoughts to God, and we take our problems and our issues to Him. Worry, on the other hand, is just taking them to ourselves and thinking of worst-case scenarios. Worry is never fruitful for a Christian, which is why the Bible tells us not to be anxious and not to worry. Philippians 4:6-7 says:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7 ESV)

If you need your heart and your mind to be guarded this week, because anxiety and worry are knocking on the door, this scripture gives us the prescription to cure us of our anxiety and worry, and fear that often comes into our lives and that is prayer. One of the best ways we can break free from worry is to turn our worries into prayers. Instead of obsessing over all that could possibly go wrong or all the what-if scenarios that keep us up at night, we can turn those thoughts into prayers.

3 STEPS TO TURN YOUR WORRIES INTO PRAYERS

1. Pray, Don’t Just Overthink

The first step is to pray. As I shared with you earlier, worry is just meditating on the wrong things. If you can meditate, think, and obsess on the wrong things, then we just need to flip the switch in our brains and turn those thoughts into thinking about the right things and focusing our minds on God. 

The Bible tells us that those who keep their mind on God will have his perfect peace. 

There is power in us praying to God and talking to Him, instead of just being in our minds and talking to ourselves and even talking to everybody else, especially if we're just venting and complaining. It's not helping us in any way by only pointing out the problems, by only pointing out what could go wrong, or what is going wrong. However, when we are still enough to get in the presence of the Lord and to just talk to Him, it helps us to start shifting our mind from meditating on what's bad to meditating on God and keeping our minds stayed on Him as the scripture tells us so that we can then receive His peace. 

2. Use Your Worry as Prayer Points

What I've been doing is using my worried thoughts as prayer points for what to talk to God about. So instead of worrying about my health, I pray to God that He would make me healthy. Instead of worrying about my children and what might happen to them or being afraid for them, I pray that God would be a hedge of protection over them. Instead of worrying about an upcoming trip, I'm praying now for traveling mercies and God to keep me as I travel. Do you see what I'm doing here? Instead of worrying, I am taking my request to God, and I'm asking for Him to do what my worries cannot. 

That means that instead of worrying about it, I'm inviting God and His power, strength, protection, and provision into it. The truth is, if we have time to worry, then we have time to pray. Why would we worry if we can pray? We are blessed to be able to confidently go before God in prayer anytime that we want. 

I encourage you to catch yourself in your worried thoughts and anxious thoughts. When you realize that's the rabbit hole your mind is going down, turn around, turn to God, and pray to Him. 

3. Pray with Thanksgiving

Philippians 4:6-7 also tells us that we should be praying with thanksgiving. So our prayers are not always asking God to do something, but with thanksgiving, we are forced to be present and remember what we do have that worry has a way of making us forget. Remaining thankful in our prayers helps us to remember not only what God can do, but what He’s already done and is doing right now. Anxiety is very future-focused, making us lose sight of what God is doing right now as positive evidence of His power and the proven track record He has of taking care of business. 

Many years ago, I had to have surgery and I remember the night before my surgery, I was so worried and anxious, but I knew to take those worries and anxieties to God. I was by my bed on my knees, just crying and praying to God and I remember God speaking to me through the Holy Spirit and saying, Christina, didn't I take care of you yesterday? And I said, yeah, and the Holy Spirit gently asked, did I take care of you today? And I said, yeah. And then He asked, well then, don't you think I'm going to take care of you tomorrow too? 

See, I was making the day of surgery bigger than it really was. God was bigger than the surgery that I was going through. God is bigger than what may or may not happen tomorrow. 

If God took care of yesterday, (and we know He did because we’re still here), and if He took care of today, He’s going to take care of tomorrow too. 

I was encouraged to stop worrying and start thanking God instead. Yes, pray, yes, pour out your cares, but with thanksgiving. Are you worried about your health? Pray for healing and thank God that you woke up this morning and that you're here today. Are you worried about your job? Pray that God will continue to provide for you and thank Him for the food that you have on your table and the clothes you do have on your back. Are you worried about making the wrong decision? Pray for God to order your steps and thank Him that you're not where you used to be. Gratitude is a powerful force to defeat anxiety and worry. 

CONCLUSION

Don’t let worry lead you to fear, but let it lead you to the throne of God in prayer and thanksgiving. 

When we do this, the Bible says that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. The word guard sticks out to me. Anxiety is not helping you to prepare for the worst, it's attacking your mind and heart. But with prayer, our minds and our hearts are guarded. 

We think sometimes our anxiety is helping us to just be cautious and aware of all the bad things that are going on in the world. And there is a type of necessary healthy anxiety so that our senses are heightened when there's a threat. But many times, our anxieties and worries never come to pass, and they're actually just a waste of our time and our energy. Dr. Tony Evans says, and I'm paraphrasing here, our worries and anxieties are like holding up an umbrella when it's not raining. 

Worry is draining your energy and wasting your time, so instead, let’s unlock the power of God in our lives by turning our worries into prayer. I’m so glad you now know how to do that because prayer will do far more than worry ever could. 

Now I know anxiety is a furious beast to battle, so if you need even more encouragement to get off the crazy cycle of worry, I invite you to watch this video where I share 3 questions to ask yourself to reframe your anxious thoughts to let go of worry and trust God more. 

For more encouragement, download my free Bible Study called “Worry-Free” to learn the 3 lies feeding your worry and the truth to set you free at belovedwomen.org. Thanks for watching, and until next time, be beautiful, be blessed, and beloved.