Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

-Philippians 4:6

Does prayer soothe your anxiety? There are some medical studies that suggest it does just that. In a 2009 trial, office workers were asked to score their feelings of depression or anxiety and test their cortisol (stress hormone) levels weekly. Half of the group received weekly prayer sessions. At the end of six weeks, the prayer intervention group reported lower levels of anxiety and depression symptoms, as well as measured lower levels of cortisol. Prayer, evidently, makes a difference. Together with good care and medication as needed, prayer is a powerful tool for wellbeing.

Long before there was a study to back him up, Martin Luther is quoted as instructing, “Pray, and let God worry.” He was a natural worrier, prone to finding all sorts of problems, usually with himself, that caused doubt and anxiety. He also knew that even if he was worried, God’s grace was more powerful than his problems. So he prayed.

There is something about prayer that reorients our relationship to our worry. We place our problems with God, trusting that God can do what is needed. We let go of the authority to be in charge of all the issues in our lives, leaving power where it belongs: with God.

Only, it is not always that easy. For those of us who feel like we have to do something about our problems, not just blithely release the worry to God, this is hard. If that’s you– if you’ve read this far with something between skepticism and desperation about how prayer can help you worry less, you are not alone. I have two suggestions for you.

First, a piece of wisdom a therapist once shared with me. We were discussing worry, and she suggested that I add it to my to-do list. I was incredulous. She insisted: schedule two minutes for worry. Worry the whole time. Then check it off. It felt absurd. It also worked. Knowing that I had fretted for a few minutes, oddly enough, made me feel like I didn’t need to worry about those things the rest of the time. Over time, the minutes of worry turned into periods of prayer, telling God all that troubled my heart.

Second, a piece of wisdom gained through experience: praying one time makes as much difference to anxiety as jogging one time does to running a 5k. Prayer is a spiritual practice to be done over and over, much as weightlifters do repeated sets in order to build strength over time. Over time, prayer becomes not only a reflex in time of anxiety but a natural source of peace, built into the pray-er’s spiritual muscle memory. Slowly, but relentlessly, prayer erodes worry and replaces it with peaceful trust in the God to whom we pray.

So pray, and let God worry.