I see you over there… dropping your kiddos off at school after a crazy morning of trying to find your kids missing shoes, yet again.
You barely made it on time to drop them off before the school shut those heavy metal doors, preventing even those who belong there from coming in.
You’ve returned home and your eyes are greeted by the ransacked house: half-eaten eggs and pancake bits sprinkled on the counter, toilet paper hanging off the toilet bowl, your half-drunk coffee (now cold), and Legos strewn about.
You swore it was all clean, like… an hour ago.
*Sigh*
You sit at your computer and realize you have precisely 119 unread work messages in your inbox. Checking your Facebook messages would be a lot more fun right now. Albeit, unproductive when you’re already behind.
You don’t have time. Time… where does the time always seem to go?
There never seems to be enough time to do anything:
No time to clean.
No time to love.
No time to shop.
No time to rest.
No time to work.
No time to read.
No time to… pray.
You begin to numb yourself of your overwhelmed state by scrolling Instagram. “A few minutes won’t hurt,” you think. And then these powerful words hit you like a ton of bricks:
“I have so much to do, I shall spend the first 3 hours in prayer.” – Martin Luther.
Oh, the irony, right? Who has time to pray… let alone pray for 3 hours??
But then your heart feels the tug of conviction. You close the app, glance over at the decal on the wall which says, “Don’t forget to pray.” You put it there to remind yourself. Put it right next to your desk so you could remember every time you sat feeling overwhelmed by the next thing in front of you. You feel like you can’t afford the time in this moment to pray…
Oh but friend, we can’t afford NOT to pray!
Herein lies the issue.
When we don’t make time to pray, even in the busy moments of our day, we lose out on connecting with the ultimate Peace Giver, the Almighty Fear Overcomer, the One Who Is In Control… so we don’t have to be.
We are the one’s that lose out on something powerful, not Him. It’s us that needs this connection. Us that needs Him to give us what we lack. Us that need to stop everything, and pray.
This is what I’m being challenged by again in this season. To pray when I first wake up even when I don’t feel like it. Pray when I’m driving my kids to school even when they are being noisy in the background. Pray when I stare overwhelmed by the ransacked house. Pray when I have too much on my plate that I might cry.
Pray because I have so much to do, I must stop everything… and pray.
Everyday, I’m challenging myself to pray in this season of crazy I’m in, not because I ought to, but because I get to and the benefits are worth it:
I get to connect with the Peace Giver who grants me peace.
I get to connect with the Almighty Fear Overcomer who grants me confidence.
I get to connect with the One Who Is In Control who grants me assurance of what’s to come.
Personally, I’ve experienced the power of these kinds of prayers. Moments of “I have no idea how I’m going to do this” have become, “Lord, I have no idea how you did that!”
When we begin to trust in a God who has the power to move mountains, He begins to move ours.
So, come, right now… and let’s pray:
Father, we wear so many hats as women and have so many balls up in the air that we are balancing. So many mountains we are facing. And yet, we don’t have to believe in the lie that if we loosen our grip over our lives by one degree that it’s all going to come crashing down or prevent us from moving forward. Father, help us remember Who is in complete control. Help us remember what is truly most important in life. Help us remember that when we come to you, you give us strength beyond our abilities to do more in and through us than we thought possible. Let us believe in the power of Your Spirit working inside us to become the woman we are meant to be. Let us remember to lead, listen, and love well. Forgive us for our distracted hearts and minds. Forgive us for forgetting you in the process of doing the work you’ve called us to do. Allow us to trust in You, and You alone. Thank you Lord for your amazing grace and unspeakable love, especially when we least deserve it. In your holy name, Amen.
