the big and small answers

While I was out for a run the other day, I was thinking about a piece I wrote that didn’t feel quite finished. I knew God had put this idea on my heart, but I just didn’t think it was done. There was just something missing.

Rehashing the ideas I had written, I knew what was needed was more of God’s truth and less of mine. I needed a powerful example from the Bible to support my idea, not just a great story of my own. Because even though my stories are good, God’s stories are better.

So I was thinking these things, not really asking God for anything, just processing through my writing and what was left to do. Like most times, I wasn’t so much praying in the way we think of prayer that starts with a “Dear God” and ends with an “Amen.” I was just thinking through some things.

When I got home, I fed the girls breakfast then sat down to do my quiet time. Summer is awesome because there’s no more 5:30 wake-up call for my Bible time, it’s leisurely and unrushed.

Summer, I love you so much.

A few minutes in, God stopped my devotion and said, there it is; there’s the rest of your story. No question about it, I had been given the missing part I was wondering about. He answered my small, quiet, sort-of prayer within an hour of it even popping into my mind. I had a question and he had an answer. My request/thought/wondering wasn’t huge or life-changing, it was just something small I needed and something small he provided.

He does that all the time. And it’s not that he’s doing it more now, it’s that I’m becoming more aware of it. The more time I spend studying and praying and asking and going deeper, the more God is opening my eyes to the wonder and awe around me. It’s been there all along, I was just too busy to notice it. Things were just too loud for me to hear what he was trying to say.

Being intentional about my daily walk with him has made me more aware of this pleasure God takes in our every day lives. I don’t believe it was a coincidence that God knew what I needed and then it was there in my quiet time. It was just a little whisper, a little reminder, that he’s got me. That I can trust him in small things and big things, that he knows my heart and cares for me.

The need for one last thing for an article seems so small and insignificant. And some would question why God would even care about a little article I’m writing on a little blog on a big, big internet. But for me, it was what I needed in that moment and what God wanted to give.

I am so overwhelmed by his hand in my life. In small ways and big, he is taking a broken, messy story and making it beautiful. I don’t know what feels better than that. I am so blown away by my God.

Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, worries, concerns once and for all] on him because he cares for you affectionately and cares for you watchfully. (1 Peter 5:7, AMP)

What about you? Are you seeing God work in the small things and the big things? Is he amazing you with his love for you? If not, I challenge you to spend more time with him, to quiet yourself and the things around you so that you notice them. Because they are there, I promise. He loves you just as much as he loves me and he wants to awe you with his heart. He longs to show you how in love he is with you. You’ve just got to slow down and listen.