Stop Praying Like This (Start Partnering With God)|08.10.25|Worried About Everything pt.2

Last week, we talked about anxiety, and stress, and worry being like a check-engine light on your car. The light isn’t the issue that needs to get fixed, it’s a signal reminding you that something else needs to get checked out under the hood.

And in the same way, these feelings of anxiety or worry are like that check-engine light. Stress isn’t a sin, it’s a signal that it’s time to pray. It’s a signal that something else needs to get checked out under the hood of your heart, so we need to turn to God in prayer.

And I don’t know if you’re like me, but I usually ignore that light for too long. I had a crack in my windshield that I let triple in size before I finally called to get it taken care of.

And I wonder if we treat prayer the same way? Do we treat prayer like something we only use in emergencies? Do we usually just hope God will fix our problems for us while we wait passively on the sidelines?

This mode of prayer makes sense if we think prayer is just about calming our fears. We choose to wait until the problem is “big enough”.

But what if the point of prayer ISN’T just to calm your fears? What if prayer is also about God calling you forward?

Because last week, we looked at Philippians 4, where we are reminded that we don’t HAVE to worry or be anxious, because we are able to turn to God in prayer, and he is able to replace our stress with his peace.

[Ephesians 2, p148]

But today, I want to look at a different letter from the Apostle Paul that he wrote to a church in Ephesus, because there is this sentence at the end of this really famous passage that hit me different this week.

I love all of chapter two, because it talks about how we were DEAD. Our old way of life apart from Jesus left us in a life that felt more like death. BUT GOD, who is rich in mercy, MADE US ALIVE in Christ Jesus.

It’s by GRACE you’ve been saved. It’s a gift, not something you’ve earned. No one can boast about how THEY did anything to earn their salvation. And then it comes to the end of that little passage:

[Eph 2:10]

“For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them.”

Or, I love the way the New Living Translation puts it: “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

I say this often in our Discover New Life experience on the first Sunday of the month: you were made ON PURPOSE and FOR a purpose.

God didn’t just secure our salvation and then leave us alone until we get to heaven. He’s not an absentee father.

God created you anew in Christ Jesus to actively participate with Him. Prayer is one of the primary ways He calls you forward—not just to receive His peace, but to walk in His purpose.

[21 Days]

That’s why I’m really excited we’re starting our 21 Days of Prayer session today. If you haven’t signed up yet, take out your phone and scan the code on the screen. Or do it right after service at the table in the atrium.

Because too often, we treat prayer just like it’s a space to ask God to do things for us. But our church is actively trying to learn how to partner with God in prayer. To learn how to let him work in us through prayer so that we join him in his work.

[Book]

And that’s what this month’s message series is all about as well. I was reading this book by Pastor Chad Veach last year, and I thought it had a lot of helpful things to teach about prayer.

Here’s what he says about what he’s learning from raising his four kids: (32-33)

He continues with saying that refusing to do for his kids what they can do for themselves isn’t bad parenting. It’s good parenting. No one wants to stunt a kid’s development, and so good parents will train their kids to take responsibility for themselves.

Sure, they might groan about it, but we know it’s good for them and it’s helping them develop the skills they will need as they grow.

A good parent won’t ask a kid to do more than they are capable of. But you MIGHT ask them to do more than they THINK they can do. Or you might ask them to do more than they WANT to do.

Because good parents aren’t supposed to do everything FOR their kids. They’re supposed to help the kids believe in their own abilities and encourage them in their purpose.

And if WE get that, don’t you think God has that figured out, too? Veach says it this way: (end of 34)

“When it comes to prayer…” “..it’s a partnership”

[Prayer should move you]

And so that’s why we need to KNOW this: prayer should move you to action. If your times of prayer rarely result in you taking action or partnering with God in some, you *might* be doing it wrong.

But I have found that most people swing between two extremes when it comes to prayer: God Do It, or I Do It.

[God Do It]

I don’t know about you, but usually when I’m facing a problem, I try and solve it myself. Anyone else?

And when that doesn’t work, or when I feel like I’ve hit a wall, THAT’S when I call out to God in prayer for help. But then what happens if he doesn’t answer right away?

Right! We get frustrated or impatient, and we decide we’re going to handle it on our own. Until we run into a wall… and we keep swinging back and forth between the “God will do it” and the “I will do it” extremes.

We swing back and forth between waiting for God to act, which is just being passive, or we say, “Find, I’ll do it myself…” which is just acting in self-reliance.

But those aren’t the only two options. When we rightly understand prayer, we realize that prayer is an invitation to PARTNER with God.

[Veach quote]

Here’s how Pastor Chad Veach explains it: “When it comes to fixing problems, does God do it, or do I do it? Yes.”

“It’s almost always both/and. We work and pray, and pray and work, and work and pray because life is a partnership with God… We can’t separate God’s work from ours, which is why we can’t separate prayer from action.”

[prayer/action scriptures]

Here’s just a FEW passages in scripture that reinforce this idea for us that prayer isn’t about divvying up different responsibilities. And prayer isn’t about just receiving comfort for things we’re stressed about and then going back to handling everything on our own.

Most of us live in these two lanes—but God’s design is a third lane: prayerful action. Prayer is about drawing near to God so that he can INVOLVE US in the purpose he has for us.

[Nehemiah, p336]

There’s a story in the Old Testament that I think illustrates this beautifully. This catches up with the jewish people AFTER they had been defeated by the Babylonians, and most of them had been kidnapped into exile, leaving behind only a few peasant workers to keep farming for the taxation of the Babylonian empire.

Nehemiah is one of the Jews living in exile, working for the Babylonian government, and he has just heard that the walls of Jerusalem have been destroyed, leaving it vulnerable to attacks from their old enemies.

[Neh 1:4] read

Because Nehemiah has just received awful news about his home country, he is deeply grieved, and that led him to turn to God with fasting and prayer, because God is the only true Comforter.

[Neh 1:5] read

Nehemiah is recounting what God’s character is like. Not because God needs the reminder, but because WE do. So it’s helpful to praise God for who he is and what he’s done in our prayers, because that reminds us who he is and what he’s capable of.

[Neh 1:6] ..

And once we turn to God in prayer and remind ourselves who he is, we often remember who WE are. We aren’t worthy. We aren’t perfect enough to ask the perfect creator of the universe to do anything for us. In the words of the Apostle Paul, we’re DEAD without him. And we’ve messed up.

[Neh 1:7-9] read

Nehemiah confesses that his people have messed up, but he asks God to please keep his promise to restore them when they follow him.

[Neh 1:10] ..

“Because we are your people, whom you have redeemed.”

[Neh 1:11] ..

Nehemiah turns to God for comfort and help, but ends with “please HELP ME as I go to talk to the king.” He asks AND takes action.

So Nehemiah goes into the king’s presence to wait on him, but the king notices that Nehemiah is sad, and asks him about it. And Nehemiah realizes this is the open opportunity from God, so he tells him about the broken walls of his hometown.

[Neh 2:4-8] read

Did you notice how the opportunity was open, because God had answered Nehemiah’s prayer for mercy in the sight of the king. But then Nehemiah got there, and the king is actually open to him! And did Nehemiah just charge ahead to take care of it himself? Nope, “So I prayed to the God of heaven” … THEN he kept going.

[blank]

And the king gives him everything he asks for: letters of official business, a blank check for the rebuilding process, leave from his official post to take care of this project, and a bunch of soldiers to help.

And at first, the project goes well. They organize the Jews who travelled there to work with the ones who had already been living there to work together to repair the wall. Individual families are helping to rebuild right where their homes are, and everyone feels connected and empowered by this.

But the enemies of Israel hear about it, and they make a plan to thwart the progress. In fact, it’s these two other officials whose ancestral lines trace back to canaanite tribes that Israel had defeated, and so there is this racial hatred and plan to make sure the Jews can’t become reestablished in Jerusalem.

So they hatch a plan to bring in an army to destroy the progress on the wall before it gets completed. And Nehemiah and the people find out about it. But before they can get discouraged, this is what Nehemiah leads the people to do:

[Neh 4:9]

“So we prayed to our God, and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.”

Nehemiah noted the threat, prayed to God, and then moved to post a guard. That’s the pattern we’re talking about today.

Nehemiah didn’t pray passively, expecting God to just show up and magically solve their problems. He prayed actively, assuming that God would use him to help answer his own prayers.

[Prayer should move you]

Nehemiah illustrates the truth we need to learn: that prayer should move you to action. If it rarely does, you might be doing it wrong. Because we were made to partner with God.

And when we’re feeling overwhelmed by stress or anxiety, we aren’t just invited to pray FOR something. We’re not just invited to pray for God to wipe away our worries. We’re invited to pray TOWARDS something. We’re invited to pray to God and expect him to work in us and through us for the outcome.

Because if we treat prayer like it’s just venting our feelings to a friend, or like just talking out our thoughts with a therapist…if it’s all talk and no changes we’re making to our lives… then the things that led us to those feelings and worries won’t ever change.

If all we do is talk to God about how we don’t know our purpose, or we’re feeling listless, and we don’t expect him to transform us to make a change, then the way that we experience life won’t change.

We KNOW that God wants to connect with us through prayer, but we also know that he’s a good father. He doesn’t want to keep us as spiritual infants. He wants to help us grow and transform and experience new levels of partnership with him because that’s what we were created for.

In the very beginning of human history, God created humanity and told them they were to be partners with Him in stewarding all of creation. When he called Abraham and created a covenant partnership (I’ll be your God and you’ll be my people) he gave him a mission: “I’m going to bless the whole world THROUGH YOU.”

And when he made the covenant with the people of Israel after rescuing them from slavery in Egypt, he told them to follow his way of life so that “all the surrounding people could know that Yahweh was the true God, because of how his people lived with mercy and justice and love.”

And then Jesus beat sin, death, and the grave and before ascending into heaven, he gave his followers the Great Co-Mission. That means YOU. Each of us have been given this same mission as we participate in the family of God that he has adopted us into.

We’re part of his family, and that means that we join Jesus in his work of making disciples in our everyday aspects of life. Wherever we are, wherever we interact with people, we’re supposed to help them learn how to become apprentices of Jesus, teaching them to obey his commands and baptizing them into the family.

THAT’S the purpose of each of our lives: to join Jesus in his work. And prayer is one of the tools that God uses to work in us to help transform us to become more like Jesus.

But when we treat prayer like our last-ditch effort, that reveals something that breaks my heart. It breaks my heart, because it reveals where our faith in God is truly lacking.

When we treat prayer as a last-ditch effort, either we believe that God doesn’t care about our concerns or we think we can’t do it without him.

If we’re believing that God doesn’t care, that he’s this unloving, uncaring, absentee father… that is incredibly harmful and incorrect.

But if we think we can do it without Him, or maybe we think we're SUPPOSED to do it without Him… that shows that what we really believe is that we need to prove our worth, or prove our effort, or prove our value in some way to ensure God's love and partnership with us.

But that is a lie, and an incredibly harmful one, because God has proven our worth and value by the fact that He came as Jesus and sacrificed Himself on the cross just for a CHANCE that you would accept His love.

He died on the cross and beat death and the grave KNOWING that not everyone would accept His love and grace, knowing that all of it was only just for a chance to have a relationship with each of us.

And it's because of that love for us and that value that He has given us, that worth that He has instilled in us, it's because of that… that He's inviting us to join Him in His mission.

So why would we hold ourselves back from that? Why would we minimize the opportunity to connect with the all-powerful Creator God of the universe who also is a loving Father? Why would we hold ourselves back from His presence instead of entering into His presence with joy and thanksgiving as frequently and as regularly as possible through prayer and partnership?

[Eph 2:10]

Because we have been created anew in Christ Jesus to join in with what he has prepared for us, so that we can walk, one step at a time, in the path that God is laying out for us.

Are you approaching prayer assuming that God WANTS to work through you? Because prayer should move you to action.

So what’s one thing you’ve been praying about that you haven’t acted on yet?

This is what we’re practicing as a church right now. We’re learning not just to pray for comfort, but to pray with the expectation of calling. That’s why I want you to remember this simple pattern… Note it, Pray it, Move on it

[Note it]

Last week I encouraged you to not ignore the signal when it pops into your heart. Don’t ignore the stress, or the worry. Don’t ignore the ache or the hunger. Don’t ignore the feeling that you care about a person or a cause.

Don’t ignore it… Note it. Recognize what you’re feeling or the opportunity that is in front of you. Write it down. Pay attention to it.

Note it, then pray it. Immediately bring it to your loving Father, because he might be prompting you forward.

Note it, pray it, and then move on it. Act obediently. Assume he’s inviting you into the solution. Assume he wants to work through you to bring growth and his mission.

I want you to take this seriously, because I don’t want us to miss the opportunity of connecting deeper with our loving Father through prayer. I don’t want us to miss the opportunity of being transformed by him little by little each day.

Because what’s the alternative? We carry our life, our feelings, our dreams and goals and desires with our OWN power…on our own shoulders.

And where has that gotten us? Worried, stressed, anxious, emotionally distant, relationally disconnected, and overall kind of burdened under the weight of handling our life on our own.

And God wants us to turn to him in prayer to replace that stress with his peace. But prayer should move us to action. Because if prayer never leads to action, then we’re missing out on the growth and transformation that God wants to do in us and through us.

He’s not just trying to soothe us. He’s trying to shape us and send us out on mission to join Jesus in his work of helping others step into his grace.

And when we make a habit of prayer, when we make a habit of obediently taking the next step that God prompts for us, we’ll see God at work more and more in our everyday lives.

You’ll feel joy, because you’ll see that you’re NOT alone. You have a loving Father who is moving in your life.

You’ll feel peace, knowing that you’re not just guessing on what your next step is.

You’ll feel purpose, because you’ll see how you’re part of something bigger that God is bringing together through all of us together.

And you’ll feel loved, because your Father sees you, speaks to you, and includes YOU in his plans of bringing heaven to earth.

God WANTS to work through you, not because he needs your help, but because he LOVES your participation. He loves being near you. And he loves working WITH you to spread his love and grace. Isn’t that good news?