Who's got this?

Take it to God in prayer.

God's got this.

I'm giving it to God.

God can handle it.

God is at work.

Most of us have heard at least one of these phrases before, especially when someone is facing a difficult decision or situation. But is this really how God wants us to think and behave?

If we look back on the story of creation, it seems evident that God has empowered us to be God's agents and coworkers in the world...

Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the seas and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground. (Genesis 1:26)

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15)

It seems as though we have forgotten about God's call for us to copartner and have allowed our consumeristic worldview to color our approach to God. Maybe we have come to lean on God to take care of things that God has called us to take care of or at least work with God on.

I want to be careful here not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. We absolutely should pray to God, seek wisdom and guidance, and ask God to help. But instead of praying and then looking upward, maybe we should pray and then look inward and outward.

We also read in the Genesis story that God says, "It is not good for the man to be alone..." (Genesis 2:18) We were created for community. Community with God and with each other. We are meant to care for creation, including our fellow human beings.

Prayer is not primarily about asking God to give us something or do something for us. Prayer is a form of communication where we open ourselves up to God and seek to be transformed in the process. It seems our consumeristic mindset has caused us to expect God to act like yet another service provider waiting for us to call and put in our order.

Should we pray? Absolutely!

Should we ask God to be involved with our lives? Yes!

Should we then sit back and wait for God to do something? I don't believe so.

God is at work in the world today, but the vast majority of the time it is through you and me. So maybe instead of asking God to handle it, maybe we should look around and see what God is asking us to handle in our midst. If we could all do that, I imagine a lot more prayers would be answered, not through some supernatural act, but through the people God has called to be partners in bringing Shalom to this broken and hurting world.