How To Turn Your Worry Into Worship

I woke up in the middle of the night; the worries of the week were dancing in my head. Feeling overwhelmed, I began writing my thoughts out on paper.

Journaling has become an act of surrender.

I start with my stresses and frustrations, but somewhere on the pages, I exchange these worries for worship.

Our church pastor likes to remind us that you cannot worry and worship at the same time.

Worry is focusing on your problems. However, worship is focusing on the God who is bigger than your problems.

In Genesis, we find a woman named Hagar who is distressed by her life circumstances. She is the servant of Sarai, who instead of waiting on God’s perfect timing for a baby, decided to take matters into her own hands by urging her husband, Abram, to sleep with Hagar. As the conflict between these two women increases, Hagar runs away.  Alone in the wilderness, Hagar is pregnant and full of worry. 

If I was Hagar, I would be worried too. But I love that an encounter and conversation with an angel shifts Hagar’s focus. She turns her eyes from her problems to the God who sees her and the God who hears her.

She moves from worry to worship.

“She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” Genesis 16:13

After this encounter, Hagar’s circumstances did not change. She was still pregnant with Abram’s son, and she would still have conflict with Sarai when she returned. Even though her circumstances did not change, her focus did. 

What are you focusing on?

Are your eyes fixed on the difficult circumstances in your life? Maybe it is your finances? Perhaps it is concern about your child or overwhelming emotions over a loved one?

We have a choice! Are we going to focus on God or our problems?

In the middle of the night, God reminded me of Hagar’s words in Gen 16:13: “You are the God who sees me.” Just like Hagar, the circumstances in my life did not change, but my heart and soul were now fully relying on God for guidance and wisdom in the middle of these hard circumstances.

Friend, God wants to do the same for you too.

He sees you and cares deeply for you. He has not forgotten you.

Today, I pray you can shift your focus from your problems to the God who sees you and wants to walk with you through these hard circumstances.

Dear God, Thank You that You are in control even when life seems to spin out of control. Help us to remember to focus on You and trust Your timing and Your plan. We love you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Note: I was recently interviewed by Teresa Whiting on the Find Hope Here Podcast about how God uses our heartbreaks to bring us to new (and more beautiful) places of strength. If you’re going through a hard season, listen in for hope and encouragement for your hurting heart!

Also, we talk about Hagar in our conversation which is why I wanted to share about her in the blog post this week. Teresa has a special Hagar episode on her podcast as well so definitely check out Episode 43, the one right before mine.