When exactly should you pray about something? How big of a deal does it need to be before you bring it to God? Does God really have time to be concerned about every little detail of your life?
Honey, there are 70 billion trillion stars in the sky, and God calls each one of them by name. He counts the sand on every shore, and numbers the very hairs on your head. Yes, he has the capacity to handle your prayers about every detail of your life. But not only does he have the capacity, he has the care.
Philippians 4:6-7 gives us a great guide on what to pray about – “Pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. THEN you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
There’s nothing you can’t or shouldn’t pray about, because there’s nothing God doesn’t care about or hold power over. How long do you pray about it? Until you have peace over it. Peace is God’s gift in response to prayer. And something truly amazing happens when you have God’s peace – you no longer have to force your way, manipulate the situation, or stress over the details. God’s peace filling our hearts and minds allows us to flow with God’s design and live in alignment with his good plans for our lives.
Again – how do you get that level of peace? Only by praying about it. What should you pray about? Everything!
It’s a trick of the enemy to make you feel unimportant to God. It’s a lie from the pits of hell that tell you God doesn’t have time for your specific prayers. He is fully capable of calling all 70 billion trillion stars in the sky by name, counting the sand on every shore, and handling your every concern brought to him in prayer.
The question for you today is, HAVE YOU PRAYED ABOUT IT?
Not just worried about it. Not just played out every scenario in your head. Not just talked to family and friends about it. Not just complained about it. PRAYED ABOUT IT. Have you asked God for help? Have you asked him for clarity? Have you sought him for discernment? Have you surrendered the outcome to him fully? If you have, then you can take your next step as he directs, or wait has he prompts, all in utter and complete PEACE.
This week, my friend Catherine taught me the most powerful prayer and I want to share it with you today. When you come to God with a specific problem, a specific request, a specific choice that needs to be made, start your conversation with God by praying this: Lord, at the beginning of this time, would you get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to this matter.
It’s our own heart that gets in the way. Our heart is how we “feel” about it. When we want what we want more than what God wants, we begin twisting things. When our feelings sit on the throne, God isn’t directing our lives, we’re doing it. And listen to me – you aren’t good on that throne! You seriously suck at directing your life on your own.
We start forcing doors open when our heart is out of alignment. When our heart is set on one thing, we miss the other thing God has for us. Our feelings lead us down halls we don’t belong and into rooms never meant for us. So, to begin, we ask God to get our heart to a place that it has no will of its own over the specific matter. God, I fully want YOUR will, your way, in your time. Remove my feelings from it.
Genesis 24 tells the story of Abraham’s servant setting out on a mission to find a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac. This wife would be very important because she would be the mother of all these promised future generations blessed by God. It couldn’t just be any pretty girl, it had to be the RIGHT girl.