A Prayer for the Anxious

By Terry Wardle

Okay. Everyone who knows me can testify that I am a restless guy. Anxiety and anxious care have been constants with me for years, and even now, after much healing, I can fall in that ditch if I am not careful. Truthfully, a lot of that has to do with an internal drive to self protect and many levels. And the result, simply stated, is that I can find it difficult to enter the Lord’s rest. So, I wrote a prayer some years back that helps me, and I thought I would offer it here. Use as you choose.

Dear Father in heaven,

I come to you in the name of Christ Jesus, and by the reconciling power of His shed blood. May your Good Spirit empower this prayer, enabling me to enter Your promised rest. I relinquish all self-promotion, self protection, self-provision, and self-adequacy, renouncing each as sinful attitudes and actions that bring great anxiety and pain to my life. By the power of Christ and with the help of the Holy Spirit, I, by faith, embrace the provision that is mine in Christ, the reality of Your constant presence in my life, your Kingdom purpose for my life, and Your Spirit’s power moving through my life this day. Father, through Christ I receive the promise of peace with you, and from that I will pursue peace with others, and seek to be at peace with myself. Empower me, I pray, to seek shalom, speaking Kingdom blessings over friend and enemy alike. And I humbly ask the Holy Spirit to help me live a life of constant thanksgiving, aware and responsive to every good gift you bring. May faith arise within my soul, that I might make every effort to enter your promised rest
this day.

In the Name of Christ,