I’ve always thought that I had a great belief in the power of prayer. I know in my head that God can do anything and I’ve articulated that to people who are going through pain. However, the belief in the power of prayer often falters when I’m going through my own trials. I know that I should be praying, but I often want to figure out a way out of the mess myself. I know that I need to turn to God, but I often turn to my own reasoning and “wisdom.” Prideful, yes. Effective, no.
What God has taught me in the past few days is that not only does He theoretically have power over all, He has trustworthy control over it. This was demonstrated to me in two unrelated ways. First, in a moment of stress caused by several unexpected time constraints, a new friend grabbed my hand to pray. As she prayed she stated that we knew God controlled time and so He could enable me to accomplish things that I didn’t think I had the time to do. Secondly, as Hurricane Gustav approached and time and time again I heard people asked for the destruction to be minimal, I was reminded that God controlled the storm’s path. Prayer for it to change direction was just as appropriate as prayer for its projected outcome. The interesting thing was that neither my personal storm, or Hurricane Gustav were as devastating as originally projected. And while I don’t know all of God’s reasons for changing the path of each, I do know that one of the outcomes has been a recognition that often I pray to God for the things I know I can’t do anything about – storms, sickness, and the such. But often I neglect to turn to Him in the more simple things of life like meeting my deadlines and keeping my commitments. Gustav and God have taught me that its not just the dramatic that He cares about – or in which He intervenes. Even the clock bows to His commands.
