The Devotional Weapon of Worry

Martha’s devotional detour turned into worry and frustration.

This is the playing field most of us are very familiar with.  I can endlessly dribble the worry ball around and around like a pro.

The degrees of anxiety may vary – from mild unease to all-out panic attacks - but the condition is universal to us all.

To be human is to worry.  We feel we can’t help but fret.

Of course, we sing with Bob Marley

Don’t worry. Be happy.

But, that's easier said than done.

As commonplace as worry is, it’s caustic effect on the health of our soul is similar to rust.  Leave it untreated, and watch it corrode our joy, confidence, our ability to love beyond recognition.

But, what are we to do?!!!

Surprisingly, worry has a potential of becoming one of the most revolutionary devotional tools in our hands.  I think God actually intended for us to use our ever-present worries to keep coming to Him, express our needs, desires and frustrations to Him:

Don’t worry about anything.  Instead, pray for everything. Shape your worries into prayers.

Shape your worries into prayers.

I like that.

I get to mold and shape those annoying, troublesome realities into relational boosters as I hand them over, one by one, to my heavenly Father.

I have a choice to loop around and around inside my head while my fears and frustrations get bigger and bigger and my God smaller and smaller. Or, take advantage of my worries to discover how tender, how intimate the love of my heavenly Father is for me in the midst of all these troublesome details! 

So, now, I can actually welcome those lemony situations and my anxiety-filled sour responses to them as bright engine lights indicating it’s time to pray!

In a sense, that’s what dear frazzled Martha did. She came to Jesus with her worries and frustrations and even though she may not have received the answer she wanted and expected, she received exactly what she needed.  

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. I Peter 5:6-7