Years ago I attended a women’s seminar and the guest speaker had us take a quiz. She asked us questions like, “After your husband loads the dishwasher, do you re-load it? Is it possible for you to give your children chores to do that you don’t take over and do yourself?” You could start to see the theme being set here.
I never perceived myself as being a control freak until I went to that seminar. I came to my own conclusions long ago that if I wanted something to happen, then I needed to make it happen. I have preached that sermon to my daughters as well. In some circumstances, that’s true.
Unfortunately, I am sort of a control freak with God as well. I try so hard to turn things over to Him and let Him do His job, but I wind up trying to take it back over. Besides, He does a much better job than I do anyway.
I have a list of things I pray about every morning and every night before I go to sleep. It recently occurred to me that this was my agenda, and, although I know I am supposed to pray about everything, I was doing all the talking and no shutting up to hear Him speaking to me. By praying this way, I don’t know what His agenda is so I might be missing out on some good stuff.
I taught women’s Bible study for about five years some time ago and I had this lady that came back to every session who never felt like she could take EVERYTHING to God in prayer. She thought she should share only the big stuff with Him. Paul tells the Philippians, “Be anxious for nothing, but in EVERYTHING by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” found in Philippians 4:6.
Paul did not say, “Take only things you think are really important and you think God wants to hear to Him.” He said “EVERYTHING”!
Prayer is like having a conversation with God. Wikipedia defines conversation as “the spoken exchange of thoughts, opinions and feelings; talk.” In order to have an “exchange” of anything, you need at least two people. That means that sometimes you talk and then sometimes you be quiet and He talks. That would be an exchange.
When you read the Psalms, you will see that David, someone besides me, talked a lot and interrupted and just needed to be quiet in order to hear God. God even told him to “…be quiet and know that I am God” in Psalm 46:10. David did, however, understand what it meant to take “everything” to God in prayer.
Do you think there is a wrong way to pray? Yes, there is and I have been guilty of that myself. When we pray it is to hand things over to God and to ask that His will be done. I have a habit of telling Him what His will should be. Stormie Omartian wrote a book called “The Power of The Praying Wife.” In this book, she teaches you how to pray to God for your husband. God already knows what is wrong with him. He also knows what is right with him and what he needs. So, instead of telling God to make your husband put the dishes in the dishwasher the proper way, you could ask God to help you be more tolerant of your husband and thankful that you have a husband who puts the dishes in the dishwasher.
People sometimes have a tendency to try whatever they can to resolve an issue and if all else fails…pray! And yet, it is the most significant thing you can do. It’s the only real power you have.
You can’t send a million dollars to Haiti? You can pray that God will provide the food, water, medical supplies and people to distribute them.
We don’t have the means to fix all the ills of this world, but we do have the power of prayer. So, don’t ever think prayer is the last resort…prayer is our best hope.
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