From Jerry Sittser’s book ‘The Will of God as a Way of Life’. . .
There is no simple way to overcome worry. We come by it naturally and there are too many reasons why we should worry. But we can learn to control our worries. We can pray about them, prepare for our future, and learn to live in hope.
First, prayer mitigates worry. Paul wrote, “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”12 If we pray about our worries we will find peace, gain greater confidence in God, and find relief from worry. When we pray, God changes us.
But prayer does something else, too. Spiritual writers have long argued that prayer changes God. He hears our prayers and acts. He alters the course of history as a response to our prayers. Richard Foster makes exactly this point. When we pray, he writes, “we are working with God to determine the future! Certain things will happen in history if we pray rightly. We are to change the world by prayer.”13 History happened as it did because someone prayed. History will take a different course tomorrow because someone is praying now.
Not that God is like a genie in a bottle. Prayer requires humility, persistence and patience. True, God will answer our prayers and change the future from what it otherwise would have been. But we should realize that we will be actors in the very future we pray about. God will answer our prayers by using us to change the future. Moses was happy to hear that God planned to deliver the Hebrews from slavery, in response to their prayers. He was less happy when God said, “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh.”14 Moses did not initially consider that he would be the answer to the Hebrews’ prayer. When we pray, we should brace ourselves for what could happen, for we might be the answer to our own prayer.
Every morning I pray that God will go ahead of me and prepare the way for what is going to happen that day. I pray him into the classroom and office and home. I ask him to protect me from temptation and keep my eyes peeled for signs of how he is working in my life. I visualize God clearing out a straight path for me to follow so that I can accomplish what is appropriate for each day. Isaiah’s comforting words come to mind.
In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord’ make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.15 ~Jerry Sittser, The Will of God as a Way of Life (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530, 2000, 2004), 137-38 (continued)
