Praying About the Little Things

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Phil 4:6

God cares about the details. For those of us who are followers of Christ, chances are, you’ve heard this scripture countless times. Anytime we start to worry about something, we are reminded that God commands us not to worry and, instead, we should pray. But, do we really think about that second part of the verse, “pray about everything”?

Everything.

There are no guidelines or parameters as to what falls within this category because everything means everything. So we know, in our minds, that God wants us to pray about everything, but how many of us actually take that head knowledge and translate it into heart knowledge? How many of us really apply this principle? Sure, we’ll pray about the ‘big’ things… for someone who is battling a disease, someone whose child has died, for people starving around the world, for an end to violence, etc. But, what about the seemingly ‘little’ things? Lost car keys, to lose those 10 lbs, for a front row parking spot?

I can’t speak for anyone else, but, for myself I know that I never used to pray about the little things. My reasoning was that God had bigger fish to fry than to help me find the earrings I misplaced and that it was foolish to even take up his time with such prayers. Looking back, I think that I saw prayers almost as though they came to God through email… they would come in order of request and God would read through them one by one and answer them in order. So, my way of thinking was, here was my “lost earring prayer” sandwiched in between a prayer for healing of someone dying and someone praying for a job so they could put food on the table and if God had to read through and answer my prayer, that meant a delay in responding to the person praying for a job and their prayer really was more important than mine. Apparently, I thought God was only capable of doing one thing at a time.

Talk about putting God in a box. I was trying to put human limitations on a God who has no limitations.

However, over the course of the past few years, I’ve gotten better about remembering to pray about all things and, you know what? God shows up time and time again, being faithful as He always is. Just last week I was having trouble finding my camera. I needed my camera that night and it wasn’t in any of the usual spots… camera bag, computer desk, kitchen table or my car. I could feel a mild panic creeping in. Now if you’ve known me for long, you probably know my track record with cameras- they don’t live for long when they are around me, and now it appeared that one had gone missing. I had to tell myself to not worry and I was reminded of Phil 4:6; so, I prayed about it. Nothing elaborate or fancy … no “Oh Lord of Lords, King of Kings, if it’s in thy will, please help me findest my camera” (I’m cracking myself up because I never pray like that- I’m not that eloquent), but it was just a quick, “Lord, please jog my memory as to where I left my camera.” Then I went about busily getting ready to go out. I was going up and down the stairs and into various rooms, gathering everything up that I needed and I walked out to the garage and I just stopped, looked around me and, for the life of me, I couldn’t remember why in the heck I had come out to the garage. I looked around, figuring it would come to me. It didn’t. So, I turned around and started to walk back into the house and there, sitting on the workbench, was my camera. God cares about the little things.

Not only is it important to pray about the little things, but you also have to remember to acknowledge and thank God for responding to those ‘little thing’ prayers. Don’t brush it off as a coincidence or, worse yet, pat yourself on the back as though you solved the problem. Instead, take a second and thank God and find joy in the fact that GOD, the Creator of absolutely everything, wants to be that involved in your life because He loves you that much. That’s definitely something to smile about.