03/09/2024
Today we are reminded that prayer, and God's provision, concerns itself with all things in our lives and not just the large needs we might have. He doesn’t just step in when we are overwhelmed, and leave the day to day details to us. Our devotional this morning is centered on the painstaking workmanship of God, and isn't it wonderful that there is nothing so tiny that it escapes God's attention? We have a tendency to triage our needs for prayer; placing the large issues and needs foremost in our petition to the Lord, but we are remiss if we neglect the small needs and desires of our everyday lives. Jesus expressed the level of detail in which God watches over us when taught. Listen…
“But there shall not an hair of your head perish.”
Luke 21:18 KJV
Our God pays attention to the details. We are often overcome by the flood of minutiae in our lives but God thrives in the details. Every time we look through a telescope we see how infinite He is, but when we look through a microscope we should be equally impressed with His presence. As far as we can see into the universe He is there, and as deep as we can see into a single molecule He is there also. Why then would we ever think that He would be unconcerned with something we might view as too trivial for His attention?
“The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.”
Psalm 147:2-5 ESV
I am always amazed when God gives me something to write and I dutifully put it to paper and send it out to be read. There is usually a big picture message that God wants to convey but inevitably I will receive an email or text message from someone who found comfort or an answer they had been seeking in a phrase or word that had escaped my attention until that very moment. The things we regard as trivial can be so powerful and necessary.
Every parent I have ever spoken with tells one story concerning gifts they have given their children which makes me smile. We might be talking about birthdays or Christmas, but inevitably they will mention how their young child would open a gift, set it aside, and then play with the box it came in. Often we become so obsessed with the grand and remarkable that we neglect to notice the blessings in the little things around us... Oh to view the world through the eyes of children... Through the eyes of God.
When we pray there should be nothing so small that we would feel embarrassed to include it. When we pray there will be things that God has already seen in our lives, and is dealing with, that we haven't even noticed or mentioned. I like to think that when I am praying and my prayer becomes a moan that my spirit is conveying to and thanking God for those very things.
“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
Romans 8:26 KJV
I love this scripture because it speaks to the box our gift comes in. It is the unexpected joy and satisfaction we receive along with the treasure. It is the prayer that escaped us and the praise that evades words.
So as we make our way through the day, praying as we go, let's do our best to remember those little things that challenge, or comfort us, and include them in our prayers that never cease. Let's ask or thank, plead or praise, for every one of these small bits of attention that God bestows upon us without ending. He is great in His most unseen and unnoticed movements, even as He is in the most grand gestures of grace and blessing.
Which was greater, the quiet impregnation of a virgin, or the humble birth to her of the Son of God, perhaps it was the words spoken by that child in the temple, or that they were never recorded, maybe it was the water turned to wine or was it the blessing that wine became to a bride’s family? Which was greater, the fish and bread that were made to feed the multitude, or the lives of those fish as they swam in the sea, and the grain in the field that was harvested and became that bread? Which was more amazing, our redemption which occurred on the cross at Calvary or the final shallow breath drawn by the body of Jesus? Which of the miraculous things that God does in our lives is more important than a single tear on our cheek, or the sweet smell of a newborn’s breath? Yes, God is in the details, and every one of them; seen and unseen, known and unknown, are accomplished by Him with the same attention and perfection. How do we pray? Will we pray differently in this knowledge?
Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for all that you do for me. I thank you Lord for the answered and unanswered prayers, big, and small, and for all the wonder that transpires in my life that is so minuscule that it typically goes without my notice. Hear me now Holy Father as I not only pray for you to forgive those sins I have commit knowingly, unknowingly, and by abstention, but I also pray that you hear my thanks for all you do for me each day, the great and small, the known and unknown, and all that you are doing about me which is invisible to me, or so expected and seemingly insignificant, that it tends to pass invisibly through and around me in life. Help me Father to be cognizant of your amazing attention to every detail of creation, and to see how each of them impacts my life, and faith. I thank you for the incense you provide, the smoke that burns my eyes as it wafts up, and the tiny unseen particles that my nose detects as I smell its sweet scent. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who was and is, and is to come. You are my everything, and although I am often perplexed by something as routine and unseen as the spark of life and fading in death, I know you are in them, and transcend them. You were in the sweet scent of my first breath, and will be in the raspy gurgle of my final exhale, but you are there, and were before I was in this world, and will be after I am gone from it. Praised be your name for sending your Son Jesus Christ to redeem me, and to deliver me into your hands forevermore. I will lift up the voice you have given me as I stand worshipping you before your throne, and shout “My Father God is Worthy!” to glorify you in that moment when all things will be seen, known, felt, smelled, tasted, and otherwise experienced in you. At that moment I pray that you will see only Jesus Christ in me, whether great or small, visible or invisible, and that you will be pleased with me, your creation that will have become one with the uncreated, for all eternity.
Amen
Rich Forbes