How many countless sermons, blogs, articles and more have broached the topic of prayer? Even in my own small little world, I have written numerous times on this topic.
Why? Because it’s inexhaustible!
One of the areas where I fall short in my prayer life is when I’ve told someone, with all sincerity and good intentions, that I will pray for them. It might be an upcoming surgery, a difficult conversation, a job interview, a recent loss and more. The prayer needs are also inexhaustible.
My frustration comes when I realize I just missed the day they most needed the prayer. Missed that surgery or that interview.
Of course, I chastise myself! But then I try to assuage my guilt by knowing that God was still present in their circumstances, regardless of my ability to “show up.”
For those of you who ask me to pray for you, take heart! I don’t forget all of the requests. I now often write those key dates on my calendar and keep the longer-term requests written down as well.
The best advice I received about conquering “prayer forgetfulness” came from a young boy about 10 years old.
He told me that when someone asks him to pray, he stops right then and prays for them. He doesn’t leave it to a chance memory or a mind that gets bogged down with too many other thoughts and activities.
From the mouth of babes! So very wise, and counsel that I often still heed to this day, decades later.
Pray in the moment.
As long as we’re talking about subjects that get a lot of press, let’s throw gratitude into our discussion. Another inexhaustible topic.
I touched on gratitude just last week, but it has popped up again this week, albeit in a different context.
You may also recall that I am enjoying the Gratitude Journal I received as a birthday present. My pattern is to write in it every morning after my devotions, as I think back over my previous day.
Sometimes the ways I’ve been blessed come flooding back to my memory – especially those of greater significance.
There are also times I get out my planner and look through my to-do list from the day before to jog my memory of something that was a blessing in my day.
But I began to wonder if I might be missing some of those smaller blessings if I waited until the next morning.
Here’s an example of a blessing I would have missed if I hadn’t stopped myself in the moment to recognize it.
For those of you who question if God is truly in the details of our lives, might I remind you that he knows the number of hairs on our head, and knows when a sparrow falls to the ground. ‘Nuff said!
Recently I noticed a large screw had fallen out of my new swivel rocker. Being the handy-woman that I am, I tipped the chair over, saw where the screw belonged, but when trying to screw it back in, it was as if the threads had been stripped.
Before lodging a complaint to customer service, I decided to tip the chair over one more time to see if I’d missed anything.
I did a more thorough review of the area and realized (duh!) that it wasn’t really a screw with a stripped thread situation. I saw that it was a bolt that needed a nut on the other side of the swivel mechanism to make it tight.
Great. Now I have to make a trip to the hardware store and track down the correct size nut out of the millions of options in said store.
But as I glanced deeper into the swivel metal, what did I see hiding in a crevice? The missing nut!
I immediately thanked God for solving this slightly aggravating situation so quickly. I followed my earlier advice.
Pray in the moment.
I’ll continue writing in my prayer journal every morning, but that won’t limit my desire to see God’s hand in the most minute details throughout my day.
We can and should be in awe of a God who blesses us with momentous, significant gifts. But we can be equally in awe of a God who loves us enough, in a very personal way, to show up with a bolt and a missing nut.
That’s the kind of walk I want with God – one that gives me delight in the moments – and leads me to pray in the moment.
The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
Psalm 145:18
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