Turn Your Worries Into Worship With These 2 Incredible Playlists

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The evening dragged on and a familiar feeling made itself at home in the pit of my stomach. My fiancee had left hours ago, and he hadn’t yet checked in at his destination.

Wind whipped up the snowflakes that tumbled from the sky, and images of his car in a snow-filled ditch whipped around in my mind. 

Kneeling on the pink carpet in my childhood bedroom, I cried out to God, pleading for a phone call to let me know he was safe.

As my worries turned into prayers , God gave me something better than a phone call – he gave me peace. Somehow, I knew that God would care for both of us no matter what happened that night. 

What happened there?

Prayer doesn’t always lead to peace, because God is not a wind-up toy, ready to perform as soon as we crank up our prayers just right.

But in this case, I believe that I received deep soul peace because I had actively given my fiancee’s fate up to God. I chose to trust that even if the worst should happen, God still had us in the palms of his hands. 

This is worship:
trusting God despite our outward circumstances.
It’s this decision to trust anyway,
to worship anyway,
to follow His path anyway,
that leads to peace. 
This peace isn’t a fake reassurance,
a pat on the head from a cosmic being
that says “it’ll work out fine”,
but a peace that comes
at great personal cost to God himself,
out of his deep love,
Love that stretched its arms wide
and allowed itself to be humiliated and murdered
so that we might experience true peace with God. 

RELATED: Take my 10-day anxiety prayer challenge to learn to pray over your child’s anxiety.

Turn your worries into prayers

My fiancee did make it home safely that night, but a few months later, my sister did not. This fear of death by car accident is something I need to continually give back to God. And the best way to do that is to bring my worries to God…every time and in every way. And then to bring gratitude and worship to my king. 

At it simplest, this is what it means to turn our worries into prayers: when we speak them out loud, trusting that God hears, we are praying instead of simply worrying.

RELATED: How to fight anxiety with gratitude.

Turn your worries into worship

But the practice of turning my worries into worship is even more powerful than just praying my worries out loud to God.

On the days that my worries overwhelm me, I sit down at my piano and begin to worship through song. This act of worship reminds me that God is in charge of this planet and I can trust him. 

You might not be able to sit down at a piano and start to play, but that doesn’t mean you can’t worship through your worries.

To help, I have compiled several YouTube playlists of Christian music and worship music that will help us take our eyes off our worries and put them back on Jesus.

I have chosen songs to fit 5 major themes, then put them into 2 separate playlists: one that is peppier (for the days you need motivation to get out of bed), and one that has more reflective music for prayer.

Theme 1: Worship songs about fear

We need songs that remind us of the place of fear in our lives. As Zach Williams says, “fear is a liar”, and this is a crucial point to remember when our worries are eating away at our souls.

Fear is lying to us.

RELATED: 12 Scriptures to combat the lies of anxiety

I have chosen songs from Francesca Battistelli, Zach Wiliams, Chris Tomlin, and Mandisa for this theme. You can see and follow this micro-playlist here.

Here’s my favourite one from the list:

Theme 2: Our identity in Christ

The best way to move past fear is to remember who we are in Christ! We are loved, chosen, saved, and forgiven! Learning to live in that identity will be a huge step toward living without fear and anxiety.

RELATED: Teach your child her worth with using this bedtime ritual

This playlist includes the extremely powerful “You Say” by Lauren Daigle, as well as several other poignant songs that remind us of who we are in Christ. You can see and follow this micro-playlist here.

Here’s my favourite from this list:

Theme 3: God’s love

Related to our identity in Christ is understanding the depth of love God has for us.

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV)

Obviously, grasping the depth of God’s love is a crucial aspect of being a Christian, and being filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

The songs in this micro-playlist are all focused on this love. You can access and follow it here.

Check out my favourite one from this theme:

Theme 4: Needing Jesus

Hebrews 12:2 reminds us to fix our eyes on Jesus, “the pioneer and perfecter of faith”. If he’s the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, we definitely need him to help us move past our fears!

This micro-list includes some more of the fabulous Lauren Daigle, Matthew West, and Jonny Diaz. Listen to this theme here.

Here’s a sample from this theme:

Theme 5: We can worship even when life is hard

I will never forget the moment: On Friday, my sister had been killed in a car accident. On Saturday evening, I walked into church and sang “blessed be the name of the Lord.” I sang it while white-knuckling the pew and wiping away tears, but singing those words in the midst of this hard time formed my faith in ways I can barely understand.

Check out this not-so-micro playlist theme here.

Check out one of the most powerful declarations of God’s presence in the silence:

The 2 playlists to help you conquer fear through worship:

1) Reflective music for prayer

This playlist contains music from all 5 themes, put together intentionally to be reflective music that you can use for prayer and worship when the worries are taking over.

Access the mellow worship playlist here.

2) Peppy music to inspire you

On the days you just can’t get out of bed, or you can’t shake the worries, sometimes you just need to preach truth at them in the form of a song. This playlist contains music from all 5 themes, but will get your feet dancing and your hands clapping.

Access the peppy worship playlist here.

So that’s my list! If you have a song that has helped you turn your worries into prayer or worship, please share it in the comments so I can update the playlists!

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