With everything going on over the last few weeks I realized that I never touched on the rest of the 30 day prayer challenge, and so I thought I would do so now.
The challenge, which was aimed at seeking God for every decision we made, “officially” came to a close on Monday (2/11/19). Going into it I really thought it was a simple task that we ought to be doing anyway, and while I agree that we should be doing that the truth is that it was actually quite difficult to remember. I, like many of you I would assume, have grow accustomed to a certain level of autonomy and self-sufficiency. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to seek God in those decisions, it was that I am so used to just figuring things out that praying through the small and mundane choices took me being intentional.
One example of this choice came while I was at Walmart. My oldest son came with me to pick up some new storage bins for our Christmas decorations as the old ones were falling apart. Standing there in the middle of a crowded store with him asking how many we should get, I told him that we should pray about it and so we did. The answer didn’t come right away, and to be honest I felt a little silly for “wasting God’s time” with such a trivial thing. I mean normally I would just pick up however many I thought we’d need and return any extra, or pick up another one if I didn’t get enough. But wanting to do this right and wanting to set a good example for him we prayed. After a few minutes and several times of him asking how many we should get I gave up and said, “Four… we’ll just get four.”
We grabbed the containers and made our way to the Garden checkout because, let’s face it, the normal checkout counters are always crowded and slow. It was while in line that I felt very convicted about the decision that I’d made. I prayed silently once more and clearly heard, “Put one back.” and so we did. A week or so later I finally packed up our Christmas stuff and sure enough everything fit perfectly without being too heavy or packed too full.
I know it’s a small thing, but I think that’s the big take away from this entire challenge. I wasn’t perfect and there were some days where I utterly failed in remembering to seek God in even some bigger decisions, but God met my family and I where we were and gently guided us through each day. God wants each of us to grow in intimacy with Him, and for us to truly understand what it means to pray unceasingly (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) – to seek His will and be sensitive to His leading. I think this is something that I will try to do several times a year, which I’ll keep you all updated on when I do; and I invite you to take the challenge for yourself.
Ancient Abandon 