Praying Ain't Enough

If I had a dime for every time I've heard, "I've turned it over to the Lord but..." I'd be retiring in luxury.  As you probably have predicted, I have a couple of things to say about that.


First, what does "turning it over" really mean?  I know how to turn over a rock, but I really don't know what people mean when they say they have "turned it over to the Lord."  People are not talking about salvation when they say they are going to "turn it over to the Lord."  Salvation completely is the work of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection.  Salvation is God's plan worked out God's way and completed by Him alone.  Nothing we can do ever will be deemed worthy of salvation.  That's why we need to be REdeemed.  So, just what do they mean?  Are they delegating?


Usually when people say they "have tried to turn it over to the Lord but...", the but is followed by "...I keep worrying about it."  This brings me to my second point.  Ready?  Sure?  Maybe YOU have to DO something!  Before you start saying, "Yeah, Julie, but God says we are to pray about everything," keep reading.


Consider the Old Couple
In Luke chapter 1, we meet a man named Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth.  In verses 6 and 7, we read that "both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly.  But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years."  Here is a couple who had done everything right, prayed, and still did not have a child.  


Zechariah was a priest, and when his "division was on duty" (verse 8), Zechariah went into the temple to burn incense and met Gabriel.  The angel told him that his "prayer had been heard.  Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John."  After Zechariah basically said, "Are you sure?" to which Gabriel answered, "Yes, shut up!" Zechariah's service at the temple ended. "When his time of service was completed, he returned home.  After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant" (verses 23-24a).  


So, just how did this happen?  Did he go home and pray?  I don't think so.  He went home and did something; well, he and Elizabeth did something.  He could have returned home and waited for Elizabeth to become pregnant.  After all, he had spoken with Gabriel!  Not just any angel but Gabriel, who told Zechariah that he "stands in the presence of God and I have been sent to tell you this good news."  If anyone had a direct message from God that something was going to happen, it was Zechariah.  If Zechariah just "turned it over to the Lord" and went home and waited, he would not have fathered John, the one who prepared the way for Jesus.  Zechariah knew the promise of God, but he knew that he was responsible for his part, and he went home and did something.  After all, the Immaculate Conception IS the Exception!


Consider the Shepherds
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, an angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds and proclaimed, "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."  Did they look at each other and say, "Cool!" then sit back down to care for the sheep, believing that they "turned it over to the Lord" and God would make the Savior walk by?  No.  In verses 15-16 we are told, "...the shepherds said to one another, 'Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.' So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger."  They did something; they acted; and they saw the newborn Messiah.


Consider the Lame and Not So Lame Friends
I'm really liking Luke!  A few chapters later, in chapter 5 to be exact, Jesus is teaching and some men carried their paralytic friend to Jesus to be healed.  When they couldn't get to Jesus, did they sit down and say, "Well, we're just going to turn it over to the Lord" and wait for their friend to be healed?  No.  They "went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus" (verse 19).  They didn't take any chances!  At first, Jesus told the man that his sins were forgiven because of the faith he and his friends displayed.  However, the Pharisees couldn't believe it and thought Jesus was "speaking blasphemy" (verse 21).


Jesus knew what they were thinking.  He turned to them and said, "Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'?  But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...He said to the paralyzed man, 'I tell you, get up, take up your mat and go home" (verses 23-24).  Did the man say, "Nah, I'm good.  I'll just sit here and turn it over to you"?  No.  "Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God."  Jesus spoke but the man acted.  He did not sit and wait.  He did not ask Jesus for a hand.  He stood up (something he had never done, by the way), picked up his mat, and ran, jumped, skipped, home praising God.


So, what are you saying?
The verses people always quote when they say they try to "turn it over to the Lord" is Philippians 4:6-7, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  Take that, Julie!  Well, not so fast.  The word "anxious" means "worry" or ruminating on and nurturing worries.  Yes, God tells us to pray about them, but He gives us the way to have His peace.  "Finally, brothers, whatever is true...noble...right...pure...lovely...admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things."  In other words, change your stinkin' thinkin!  


You won't have the peace of God if you pray and continue in your old way of thinking!  You have to deliberately and willfully think about other things.  The hymn "Count Your Blessings" does not begin "When your life is awesome and all is great!" It starts, "When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed.  When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost.  Count your blessings."  No matter what the worries may be, God gives us the directions for achieving His peace.


And, by the way, just in case we didn't get it the first time, Paul writes in verse 9, "Whatever you have heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice.  And the God of peace will be with you." And Nike thought they were the first to say, "Just Do It!"