Our Sunday School class just finished an incredible book called The Praying Life by Paul Miller. Ryan and I are still reading it aloud together, so we’ll be savoring it for a while. One of the most powerful take-away points for me was Miller’s encouragement to pray about the things that seem as unchangeable as the color of the sky. He says he nagged his daughter about something for years before it dawned on him to pray about it. Once he finally thought to pray about it, things finally changed.

I’ve taken his encouragement to heart and am blown away by the way in which God grants my requests! If I notice a sadness in one of our children on Tuesday, I pray about it Tuesday afternoon. By Wednesday, she is back to her happy self again; that glimpse of darkness gone for days-on-end, and never-to-be-seen again.  If I feel concerned about my husband’s workload on Thursday, I talk to God about it on Thursday. The workload doesn’t go away on Friday, but I get some ideas for ways in which I can help him. Maybe a meeting is rescheduled and a project goes well for him, or he shoulders the responsibilities better than ever before. These are just a few examples of the many prayers I’ve prayed over the past few months: when I think I see a sign of sickness, when I am afraid, when I want something, or when I fail, I’ve learned to pray. The way in which God cares about these things and truly intercedes on my behalf has made me so deeply happy. Sometimes I’ve been just bouncing around the house, so full of gratitude to our caring Father.

What has really captured my attention is the fact that God grants most of my requests! You probably already know this, but I’ve been learning that when we come before Him with lots and lots of prayers – all of the “sky is blue” things that we otherwise simply accept – we get to see that He loves giving us the desires of our hearts. When we only come to Him with 2 or 3 big requests a year, He might have to say “no” to one of the them, “have patience” on the other, and we might miss the opportunity to witness His daily generosity and care.

Pray! Pray about the “sky is blue” things. Pray about everything.

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