devotional - day 26

Isaiah 30:19 He will be gracious if you ask for help. He will surely respond to the sound of your cries.

Prior to my marriage imploding and the subsequent divorce, I didn’t really have a relationship with God. I acknowledged his existence and believed in my salvation, but that was about it. In fact, I can recall only two instances of me ever even asking for God’s help and him showing up prior to that time in my life.

#1 - When I was about twelve, I misplaced the $200 of cash I needed (and had begrudgingly earned selling chocolate Easter bunnies) for summer camp. I knew my mom would kill me if I had lost it. So, I decided to pray asking God for help in finding out where I had stupidly stashed it. He answered the prayer within minutes and had me remember that I’d put it behind my sheet music on the piano stand. I can still feel the relief of that prayer being answered decades later.

#2 - When I was twenty-two I met my ex-husband. Him and his best friend and I were driving along the Oregon coast at night and I hadn’t been watching the gas gauge. When I did notice it, it was below the E. We had no idea how far from a gas station we were. During that time I was an agnostic leaning toward athiest. I wasn’t exactly the praying type. But I decided to pray anyways. God answered the prayer and we found a gas station before the gas tank ran completely dry.

The event of my imploding marriage and all that ensued after it was, of course, a time to turn to God for help. It was a BIG THING that I needed divine help and strength with. Might as well really give this God thing a try. 

However, let’s look at the ways God stepped in prior to that BIG THING I asked God’s help with. They were little tiny, seemingly insignificant prayers. One to help me figure out where I had put $200 and the other for a gas station. And yet, God answered those prayers. It didn’t matter to him that they were seemingly insignificant. What mattered to him was that I was asking him for help. And, as you might be able to glean from the incredible lack of asking for help from anyone - including God - you might have correctly discerned that I have trouble asking for help. Even from God. 

Or I did. Until life became so chaotic and crazy and scary and overwhelming that I had to swallow my pride of thinking I could do life on my own and ask for help. It started with God and then very slowly and with lingering hesitancy I have learned to ask others for help in addition to God. 

The point of this is - when you go to God with the littlest of requests and he amazingly obliges it creates a foundation of trust that God will indeed show up in the biggest and largest and most overwhelming of asks when the time comes (because that’s how life works in this broken world). And knowing that will decrease the anxiety of those hard moments knowing God is totally with you and for you. 

So today - try praying about the mundane and see if God shows up! And then just make it a practice. :)