How many times have you caught yourself saying, “I sure hope things are going to turn out alright” in the face of a medical exam or threatening situation?

What does that say about the size of your God?

There should be no room in a Christian’s life for weak-kneed “fingers crossed” hanging on, as though God doesn’t exist.

We have a Creator who flung the universe into being with a word, yet He cares enough to attend the funeral of every sparrow (See Matthew 10:29).

I used to think, “Oh, I don’t want to bother God with this or that small thing, it seems so selfish. Besides He’s got ‘bigger fish to fry’ than my paltry concerns.”

Well, listen to these words from the lips of our Savior in Matthew 7:9-11:

“Or what person is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf of bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? So, if you, despite being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

Jesus was saying that there is nothing too small that God doesn’t care about concerning His kids.

How about you? Is there anything too small when it comes to one of your children? A broken fingernail, a bruised elbow, a request for a bite of your coffee cake, a sip of your tea?

Which request of theirs is too small as to not command your immediate attention? 

We believers have no idea how precious we are to God.

Pray Without Ceasing

The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”

That command to “pray without ceasing” bothered me until it dawned on me that God was addressing my preconceived attitudes about Him.

If I believed that He couldn’t be bothered with my measly needs, then of course, who would want to ceaselessly pray to a God like that?

But suppose we viewed Him through the lens of Genesis. In a previous essay, I wrote, “God knows all about our beginnings from dust. But He lifted that dust to His lips and blew His image and likeness into it, forever bonding us to Him in unbreakable love.”

A God that got His hands dirty personally forming His creatures and then blowing His own breath into them is not likely to walk away from them and settle for an occasional glance from afar.

He’s invested in us, He feels what we feel, He sees life through OUR eyes, and — in Romans 8:31-33 — He swore never to leave us, never to forsake us:

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also, with Him, freely give us all things? Who will bring charges against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies.”

Now that’s a God I can hang with — ceaselessly.

The trouble is that we grow up and leave our childlikeness behind. Yes, our childhood must go, but we are to remain as children toward God for our whole lives.

As shared in Matthew 18:2-4: “And He (Jesus) called a child to Himself and set him among them, and said, ‘Truly I say to you, unless you change and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. So whoever will humble himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

In God’s kingdom, the way up is always down. But “the rub” is that childlikeness is a freewill choice that gets harder to make the older we get.

We can come to believe that we can get along without God except on Sundays, cheating ourselves out of day-to-day intimacy with our Creator.

A friend of mine once confessed that he used to say to Jesus, “You stay here in my truck, I’ve got to go to work now.” Sad.

How About You?

Here’s a challenge for you: Resolve for one week, before you get out of bed every morning to pray to God about your coming day.

Share your concerns, fears, joys, sadness, stressful challenges with the Almighty. Bring Him in on the details of your life and watch the load lift and peace reign.

Don’t you think its time to move from passive wishing to active engagement with God?

As noted in Philippians 4:6-8: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

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