03.09.22 | Removing Worry
Beginning with today’s Fasting & Prayer Focus, we will be introducing a simple movement that will guide you through your weekly time of fasting. We will continue to provide a focus for the week, and then you are able to take this, or another focus that the Spirit has revealed to you personally, through the movement as you fast. To help you remember, we created this acronym for “FAST:”
Focus: Find a quiet place to settle your mind and open yourself to the Holy Spirit’s presence.
Adoration: Spend time honoring and exalting God, tell him what you appreciate about him. Contemplate on who he is and what he has done.
Speak: Commune with God, taking moments to both speak to him about what’s on your heart and to pause and listen for his voice. Use journals to write down what you hear. In an effort to truly understand what Jesus wants to communicate to you, ask simple follow up questions like, “Is there anything else you’d like me to know about [fill in the topic]?”
Transform: Commit to taking active steps to change or address what the Lord revealed during your time of fasting.
For the season of Lent, we will be using Psalm 23 to guide us through our time of prayer and fasting. Today we will focus on our tendency to worry, as we examine Psalm 23:1.
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
After going through the first movement “Focus,” spend time on the second movement “Adoration,” expressing brief prayers of gratitude for the character of God, for him as Lord and Shepherd.
In the third movement “Speak,” come to Jesus and ask him to identify areas of worry in your life. What prompts you to worry the most? Talk with him about what comes up for you.
Lastly, commit to taking active steps to “Transform,” particularly in the area of worrying. Are there any practical ways you can remind your body to trust God in times of worry?
Here are some examples you can choose from:
- Whenever worry strikes this week, recite Psalm 23:1 under your breath: “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.”
- Practice prayerfully pausing for 20 seconds, leaving your worries at the doorway of your home in order to keep your home a place of rest with your Good Shepherd.
- Take a daily walk where you literally “consider the birds of the air” as a practice to release your worries to God (Matthew 6:26).
- Design your own practice – make it practical, prayerful, and helpful for the intention of quitting worry.