Mundane Prayers Matter to God
Back in May, I wrote in my Facebook Notes about the prayer that never fails me. I call it the “Finding Prayer.” When I have lost something and need to find it, I ask my Heavenly Father to help me. He always does.
But it’s not just the “Finding Prayer” that God answers. He answers all prayers, of course. But many people have asked me, “Why do you bother God with the little stuff? Can’t you handle anything on your own?”
Well, yes. And no.
I’m perfectly capable of handling many things; though there are some things that completely defeat me. But God has told me to cast all my cares on Him. (1 Peter 5:7) That’s kind of an open invitation, don’t you think? It doesn’t sound like He’s saying “just give me the big stuff.” And Psalm 55 says that we should give all our concerns to God, and He will sustain us.
Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I view God as a sort of cosmic Jeeves, able to supply any and every need in amazing, prescient fashion. Heavens, no! Whatever God may be, He is not my servant to be ordered about or to provide for my every whim.
But God is my Father. And while I am aware that there are many really dreadful fathers out there, God isn’t one of them. God is the perfect Father. A good father loves His child. And what is important to a child is important to its Father.
Which leads to the Mundane Prayer. Tonight, on my way home from karate class, God answered three Mundane Prayers in quick succession.
First, I needed to fill my car with petrol. I don’t like partly filling my tank. When I fuel up, I want it full to the brim. But I’m on a stringently limited budget right now — no more than $25 a week for petrol. And I’d let my tank get below half-full, so I guessed that I needed between 10 and 15 gallons. So I needed petrol to be less than $2.50 a gallon. At the station I usually use, it was $2.52. The next three stations I passed were not the brand of petrol I prefer. (I’m a Amoco/BP girl to the core, and have been for 20 years. The two times I used another brand, my car was distinctly unhappy and I got ghastly gas mileage.) And two of them were $2.51 a gallon. There’s one more BP in the general area, and I decided to check it out before caving and buying at the higher price. (Which would mean robbing the grocery budget for the week.) But as I headed that direction, I simply said, “Lord, it would be so lovely if the petrol at this station was less than $2.50 a gallon.”
Now, God likes to keep me in suspense. This particular station’s sign is set in such a way that, if you are approaching it from the east, you cannot read the prices until you are less than half a block away. So I’m sort of thought-begging … you know, where you aren’t exactly praying, but the thought is running through your head, “oh please, oh please, oh please.”
And I am flipping the turn indicator to turn into the station when I see it … the sign says that the petrol is $2.499 a gallon. “Thank you, Lord!” (You skeptics and math-types can just hush. I am not so math-challenged that I don’t realize that $2.499 is pretty much $2.50 a gallon. But I didn’t specify how much “under $2.50” I wanted the petrol. And it was under. Just.)
So then I am counting my cash … I’m trying to kick the credit card habit (and they are all pretty much maxed out , so it’s not likely I could use them anyway). I have $37 on hand. I need to buy something on the way home to eat, and I would like to have $6 left over for a special breakfast on the way to an early meeting tomorrow morning. And, again, my budget is $25. Thus, the second Mundane Prayer. “God, please let my tank be full at less than $25.” I ask the clerk for $35 on pump 9. (Yeah, if my faith was a little stronger, I would have given the clerk only $25. I’m not that strong yet, okay? God still loves me, despite my weakness.)
Now, remember, I estimated that I needed between 10 and 15 gallons. So I’m watching the ticker as it counts up gallons and dollars. The automatic shut-off kicks in at 9.6 gallons — $23.79. “No, really?!” I top it off to $24. “Thank you again, Lord!”
So I go back inside to get my change, and the clerk asks about my gi. I’d forgotten that I had it on. I told him about our school and handed him a brochure in case he, or someone he knew, might be interested. (Boy Scout Moms are also careful to Be Prepared.) 🙂 And this, too, is a long-standing prayer of mine: that God would allow me to bring in new students to learn both self-defense and salvation. I am not good at sharing the Gospel myself. But my sensei and others in my class are.)
As I am heading off to forage for dinner, I look at the clock — it’s almost 2100. Now, my ex takes the children out to dinner after karate on Thursdays, and I like to get home before he brings them home. I don’t like him having to wait on me, and I especially didn’t want him waiting tonight, when the temperature is, quite literally, freezing. Both of the kids had left their coats in my car, so they are clad only in their gis.
So this triggers the third Mundane Prayer: “God, please let me get home and have the house open before the kids get home.” So I get dinner and head home, pulling into the driveway, and thanking God yet again, because they aren’t out front waiting on me. I have time to get all the stuff in from the car; turn off the alarm; turn on the tea-kettle, the computer, and the news; unpack my lunch bag, and put my dinner on a plate before there’s a knock at the door and the kids come thundering in.
My point in telling these minute details of a 20-minute trip from karate class to home is that God, as my Father, cares about these little, relatively insignificant details of my daily life.
Jesus said that God knows every little sparrow that lives, and that He knows when these tiny creatures (and where I live, you see hundreds of them all over the place, every day) fall to the ground. Jesus also said that God “numbers the hairs” of my head. And He reminds us that we are far more valuable than any sparrow. (Matthew 10:29-31)
That being the case, I don’t think it’s wrong to ask God for the little, mundane needs I run into. (I mean, I’m not missing out because I don’t know how many hairs I have. So if that knowledge matters to God, I’d bet that the other things — the things that do matter to me — matter to Him, too.) I don’t think it’s “bothering Him” to ask Him to help me find something I’ve lost. Do you think your child is “bothering” you when he comes to you and says he’s lost something and would you please help him find it? (Okay, so maybe sometimes you do. But usually if your kid has a worry, you want him to share with you and let you help, right? And remember, God is the Perfect Parent. So He doesn’t get out of temper with us.)
Child of God, are you giving God your mundane problems and asking Him to help you with them? Or are you running around — worried, upset, and scared — trying to do everything yourself? Christ Himself told us to ask God for the most mundane of things: our daily bread, as well as for forgiveness of sins and protection from temptation.
If you can turn to God for the big, hard things like forgiveness and protection, why are you afraid to ask Him for help with the little, easy, mundane things? Why do you not believe that He will give you what you ask for? He has told you “Ask, and it will be given to you.” And He has promised that whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. Do you believe His promise?