Finals and this bulk of a semester are finally over! And boy was this one heck of a semester. God was definitely pushing me to lean on Him more and more each day because He knew I was trying to lean on my own understanding. I never really realized the importance of prayer until these past few months. Of course I've always known that prayer was important, but what I didn't realize is that prayer is essential. I am probably the last person to be writing about prayer, but God has been so good and so kind that there was no way that I couldn't write about prayer.
A long time ago, I watched this series by Michael Todd with Transformation Church. The one video that caught my attention and has continued to stick with me was the sermon on Baby Faith. Michael Todd said something that was so simple yet so incredibly convicting. He said, "If you don't pray to God about the common cold, how do you expect yourself to come to Him so you can move mountains?" So true! Of course, that doesn't mean that you can't pray to God about big things without praying about smaller things first, it's more about expanding your trust and reliance on God to get to a place where your God-given faith can move mountains. Think of the mustard seed parable:
"The kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches."
-Matthew 13:31-32
Much like the Kingdom, our own faith can grow in the same way. Prayer is essential for growing our faith. So, I took Michael Todd's advice and started to pray for things that I would normally overlook or take control of myself. Recently, I have been having trouble getting up in the morning. I like waking up at 6 because if I get up anytime past 7, I feel like I wasted a good portion of the day. I ended up asking God to help me get up in the mornings so I could spend some more quiet time with Him and take advantage of the day He had made. Th next morning, I woke up before my alarm! But, I forced myself to go back to sleep because I saw that I had more time to sleep. It didn't click for me that God was helping me get up earlier. I didn't even really fall back asleep because my mind was pretty awake. The next couple days were the same, I would wake up before my alarm and try to force myself to fall back asleep. It wasn't until maybe a week later that the realization hit me. God was answering my prayer! I was completely dumbfounded that God would answer such a small and silly prayer. I don't know why I was so floored, Jesus says in Matthew 7:7 that we should, "Ask and it will be given to [us]; seek and [we] will find..."
I got really excited like a kid on Christmas morning. Here are some other small things that I prayed about and God answered in His perfect timing: for the pain of my cramps to lessen and be more manageable, for the water bill "situation" to be figured out, for a confrontation with one of my professor's to work out, for my prayer life to be deeper and more intentional. These are just some of the small things I prayed for. There are some bigger things that I prayed for that God is gradually answering or has already answered, but I won't list them here for the reason that they are a bit personal.
Prayer has power. I feel like we are sometimes numb to this fact and just list off our normal prayer template without much time and care. God is present and He longs to hear from us. We don't want to be like the Pharisees who make a show of prayer rather doing it in love and with intentionality. Jesus says, "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen" (Matthew 6:6). This kind of isolated and quiet communication with God is essential to our walk with Him and to how we carry ourselves each and everyday. God sees us and sees the desires of our hearts. He wants to hear our desires and our troubles. He wants us to lean on Him for everything, even the small things.
What are some things that you don't think about praying about? What are some things that seem small, but need just as much guidance from God as a big prayer?
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