Sometimes we don't need to pray about it

Several years ago I had a passionate conversation at dinner with a friend on the topic of prayer. My position was that we needed to pray about everything. I quoted Philippians 4:6-7 as my case study. In case you're not familiar, this passage in the Bible tells us to not worry about anything but pray about everything. My friend argued that sometimes, we don't need to pray about situations, we just need to take action. I countered that if we don't pray, then how will we know the best way to act. We were polarized in our positions and agreed to put pepperoni on the pizza and call a truce.

Now, If I'm being completely honest, I don't pray about every single little thing. I don't ask God what color lipstick I should wear or how to style my hair. But I do try to seek His counsel on the important matters of life. I've learned over time that God cares about every detail of my life and if it's important to me then it's important to Him.

One of the greatest gifts that came as a result of accepting Jesus as my Savior has been the knowledge that the Creator of the Universe wants a relationship with me. He wants me to talk to Him and share my thoughts with Him. He regularly invites me to enter His presence through prayer and worship and then gives me the ability to sit at His feet and hear His thoughts, and seek His wisdom on matters of the heart, business, and finances, etc.

But with that being said, I've also learned that God gave us intelligence and expects us to use it when it makes sense to do so. Take for example, this cabinet in my house. It looks perfectly innocent. It was designed to be a turn table and when I first moved into my home, I was so excited about it, thinking that it was going to be the best place to store my Tupperware.



But 5 years later, I've come to the place where I recognize that this spinning cabinet is a terrible place for Tupperware. The lids always get stuck under the cabinet and the containers never fit right. It doesn't matter how many times I organize it, it always comes back to this...

Sometimes, things in our life are a lot like my Tupperware cabinet. We plan, we think, and we ignore issues only to come to the point where we finally accept that whatever it is just isn't working. And it's right here that we are invited to make a decision. We can certainly choose to continue to struggle and ignore the problem, we can pray about or we can just take action?

The reality is that I could stand in front of my cabinet praying all day long but that's not going to change the situation. I can continue to ignore it and that won't change it either. The situation is only going to change when I make a decision to find another place to put my storage containers. Can God give me an idea of where else to put it in my kitchen? Of course He can and I'm not suggesting we leave Him entirely out of the details. What I am suggesting is that sometimes we don't need to pray about it. We just need to act.

For those like me who might like a Biblical example of this, check out Moses' story in Exodus 14. But for the rest of us who are making a list of our New Year's Goals, perhaps now might be a great time to make another list of the things we just need to get done. Things like, go for a walk, organize your closet, tell your spouse you love them, sweep the kitchen floor, read your Bible, pray, get a check up, visit the dentist, attend church on Sunday, spend time with your children, write a blog or even organize your tupperware.

My friends, sometimes we don't we need to pray about it, we just need to take action.

From me to you... Happy New Year 2019!