This is a story of how little things can become big things. I grew up witnessing the importance of prayer. One day we all loaded up into the family car, and my mom said 'We're going garage sale hunting. For our home school we need 5 desks. Only they have to be 3 large ones and 2 small ones. Let's pray also that we can get some older desks that will go affordably' For the 30 minute drive into town from the hill, we'd pray for this specific thing, and that they would be affordable. My childhood memory tells me that the first house we stopped at, had a chalkboard in front. My mom asked 'do you happen to have any more school supplies?' And the lady said, 'well, sort of, we have five desks in back, only they're not all the same size. We have 3 large ones and 2 small ones, and but since they are the old style, we want to let them go at fairly cheap'.
To a 6th grade kid, that was an immediate answer to prayer.
I believe God loves to answer prayers in ways that shout "I DID THAT FOR YOU!" I mean, I don't always think God enjoys it when we pray for something and then they get answered in a way that we can say 'Well, it COULD be coincidence. It COULD be science. OR It COULD be God's answer.'
Whenever I'm faced with those possibilities I ALWAYS assume it was God's answer. Frankly, God invented science and coincidence anyway, so I give thanks to Him in all things.
Because I regularly saw God answering the specific prayers of my mother like this, I grew up knowing God listens to us, and delights in answering our prayers. I hadn't been familiar with the term 'prayer warrior'. A term which I think people started giving others who pray often, and frequently see answers to those prayers.
I would NOT call myself a prayer warrior.
I don't mind the term. I'm more of a prayer conversationalist if you will permit me.
Prayer is almost habitually my reaction to moments of need, fear, nervousness, concern, heartache, etc. But I don't put a whole lot of thought into the formula of how I'm going about it, nor much concern with the length. I think a prayer warrior has a much more intentional and disciplined approach to prayer. I think a prayer warrior keeps a prayer journal and makes sure to keep praying for something. I used to do that, but the truth is God kept answering my prayers so quickly, and I kept asking Him more often that I couldn't keep up.
Unless you've developed this habit, of just talking to God as if He were there all the time, it doesn't come naturally I'm finding from others.
No, my prayer life is much more like, I have a constant access to the all powerful who has the power to set me straight, or help me out. I sort of walk around like a little dog to His big dog.
I say all of this to make sure you know that when I'm speaking of prayer, I'm not speaking like a prayer warrior. I'm speaking like someone who is simply talking to God all day, telling Him what's on my mind, and then who stands back and expectantly watches Him do amazing stuff.
This story is a small example of that, although in the end you may not find it amazing, because it's a 'little' thing.
My wife yesterday called me, I was in the throes of a horrible allergy attack and she said 'I've lost my keys and I can't get into the car, can you come to get me.' So I did, but as I got up and began on my way I simply said in my head, 'God, my wife is probably stressing right now, please bring her calm.'
I got there, and she was obviously upset. Her keys held a master for the school, our house, our car, her driver's license and her work visa (two documents we are required to have at all times), a coin purse, and some pepper spray. Keys to a work out room, and our post office. For each key we sign an agreement if we LOST those keys we'd have to pay to have the locks all rekeyed and new keys issued. We were looking at a LOT of money.
She stayed a bit longer, so I headed home, since it was around dinner time, and I was feeling lousy, the kids opted to make dinner. They made bbq'd chicken breasts with rice'roni and tossed green salad. Our kids are 13 and 11. They are awesome! We reported the keys missing immediately because we know the risk is that someone stole them so they could have an opportunity at thievery, so we told the school principal and publicly offered an award for any information, hoping the PNG network would do its thing.
Knowing my wife would be worried, again I prayed while my puffy eyes were closed, 'God, help her find her keys'.
When she got home, having still not found them, I helped try to jog her memory. I could tell by the jumps she was making that her mind wasn't calm. She was saying things and I would stop and back her up and ask her to be more specific, so that hopefully she would catch a memory. Nothing was helping.
So I quietly prayed 'God help my wife get some sleep tonight'. I knew she wouldn't be able to rest easily. Her mind tends to work like that, if she's got something on it, she won't get rest, which makes it worse. But I'm like that too.
In the middle of the night I woke up around 3am, for a brief moment and I saw my wife was up, so I prayed as I fell asleep
'God, right now, this little thing of losing the keys, could easily become big. Kendal has so many things going on this month, as do I, that we are cutting things out of our schedule, to compensate. We're dropping things, and we don't truly need anything NEW. Could you please help her find her keys in the morning?'
I drifted off.
I woke up around 6am, and again, my thoughts were on her and I prayed
"God, help me to be a good husband to my wife who is worried. Help my wife to worry less, and trust you more. I don't know what the purpose of the keys getting lost was, and I don't need to know. I trust if we don't recover them, that you will provide the money to rekey the locks. I trust if my wife is feeling a little humbled and stupid, that you can craft that to your glory, so if it is us that needs a little attitude adjustment, please help us to learn the lesson quickly. My desire is that my wife finds her keys first thing this morning, and if You could find it in your heart to relieve her in this way, I would be very thankful... otherwise, thank you for taking care of us the way You do, and for listening."
My wife got to school, called me within 5 minutes of arriving and said she had found her keys. She said that last night, as she was drifting off, she had a memory. But this morning, the memory was so feint that she wasn't sure if she dreamed it or not. She said she recalled her keys slipping behind a shelf, and remembering that she was so busy she thought 'I have to go back and get those'. But then she lost the memory.
It wasn't until her mind calmed, and she was about to sleep, that the memory came to her, and sure enough the keys were precisely in that spot.
Now...
This is a little thing.
LITTLE things gnaw at you. Distract you. And when you're having one of those 'I'm REALLY busy and can't handle 1 more thing this week' days.... LITTLE things are all that are needed to completely derail you.
I believe the enemy can attack us through little things... more often than big things.
I believe that since our attitudes and how we relate to others as we go through life is often MORE ministry than the work we do, that the little things come at us to destroy our attitudes. Sure the work gets done, but the way we go about it, can harm others.
It was like that in the village for me, YES I could do this recording, but I wanted to make good relationships along the way, not be grouchy and mean. But thousands of LITTLE THINGS where conspiring against me constantly trying to ruin my attitude.
The ONLY thing I can do, is daily read my Bible, and daily pray, and daily think about those things I read and try to apply them. (possibly even read them out loud).
So... we prayed, my wife found her keys.
Coincidence?
Would she have found her keys had we not prayed?
You could say that her mind was not functioning well because of panic and stress, and that when she was calmed, her brain was able to access the information.
Fine, do that. God invented the brain and psychology.
You could say that God put the thought into her.
You could even say all kinds of reasons why God allowed this thing to happen.
I want to go on record to say:
I DO NOT CARE WHY OR HOW. Because it works.
We serve an all powerful being who cares intimately about us. He knows more about me than I do. He knows how many hairs I have on my head. He formed me long before I had the ability to form myself. He is power, all knowing, loving, and just.
To not be talking to him, is like choosing to not talk to the most awesome person in the world. EVERY day. I call him up so often that if He were a human people would call me a stalker. I call Him at 3am when I'm worried. I text Him when I find something funny, or appreciate something He created.
'OMG look at this orchid! ROTFLOL! U R0X0R!'
And I don't know why He chooses to answer our prayers. And I don't know why He does it in ways that are sometimes way over the top like 'THAT HAS NO EXPLANATION BUT...GOD!' and sometimes He takes a back seat and lets us wonder if its coincidence. I don't mind not knowing why and how. I enjoy simply knowing that it IS. It is true.
There are so many evidences in my life that God exists, that He is close, and what He says is true. The enemy can try to instill doubt, but I've seen too many examples of God answering prayer, and the reason I've seen those, is because I choose to turn to Him for everything.
I think a lot of people fear prayer. I think some don't want to pray 'wrong'. Meaning they don't want to ask for something if they feel they shouldn't be, or maybe would be going against God's will.
I think some people want to over-analyze prayer. 'Well prayer is really a psychological meditation where we calm ourselves and focus our minds'.
I think some people think 'God already knows my needs, He can choose to give them to me if He wants.'
Who knows, they might all be right. I don't care if I pray against God's will. He's more powerful than me. I don't pray with the whole 'this is what I want, but God, whatever you want' ESCAPE clause.
Yeah I know Jesus prayed that, but not like we do now. Sometimes we worry that God won't answer our prayers, and thus our faith would somehow be weakened, and so we allow God an out 'well if He says 'no' it's because it wasn't His will.' Well DUH! Of course it wasn't His will. God is going to do what God is going to do.
"Well then Prayer is about changing our will to match God's!" - some people say that... I dunno, there are a lot of smart people out there, maybe they're right.
I simply say whatever is on my heart. "God you're awesome!" or "God I need this!"... I avoid asking WHY. I don't feel I have the right to know why God does what He does, and frankly, I'm scared to death of finding out WHY while I'm still in human form. I expect God is so unfathomable, that if He chose to fully answer any 'WHY' question, it would literally blow my mind.
I don't know that there is any secret formula.
I've seen God answer prayer. I expect that He will do amazing things. I KNOW that He loves to answer prayer in ways that bring Him Glory, and when He does, I try to very publicly glorify and thank Him.
He answered my prayer last night that my wife would find her keys. I knew He would. Not because its what I wanted. But because if He didn't, I knew that I'd be okay with it. It isn't too trivial for Him. I told my wife 'If you don't find them, don't worry, in God's economy the money will come from somewhere if we need it.'
Maybe faith is simply not getting worried as easily because you know it'll work out somehow. For me, I tend to think these things will work out, and I try to focus on not letting myself get distracted nor my attitude harmed by LITTLE THINGS.
Save your panic for the big things. But oddly enough, if you have enough big things, you'll see God being faithful there too, and soon your response starts to treat big things like little things in regards to your knowledge that God will provide one way or the other.
He doesn't always do it how we want it to be done. Our discipline is to learn to be okay with that, and in the midst of it still be able to say God is good.
