02.11. Chapter 11. Prayer about Details
Prayer about Details
We are exhorted to pray concerning all things.1 The details over which we do not pray will be ordered by our poor wisdom and be dependent upon our but limited resources. But when affairs are definitely committed to God, and His guidance is awaited and followed, then is secured the inestimable advantage of matters being ordered by His perfect knowledge and power. Great is the gain of this in those items of life which, being small, are oftentimes very fretting to the spirit. A Christian man, needing to move to another dwelling, spent much time searching for a house, and found none. At one that was advertised he decided not to look, since he was well aware of the dilapidated condition of the buildings in that district. After long fruitless searching, he decided that he could better serve God with time and strength, saying to a friend that their heavenly Father surely knew where was the place of His choice, and that he would now commit the matter to the Lord, and await His promised guidance. Within one hour of this decision a lady casually met him who also was house-hunting, and who said that she had just looked at a new and lovely suite of rooms, and would have taken them had they not been too many arid large. These were viewed and found very convenient. It was the house that it had been thought useless to see
Some time thereafter it was needful again to move ; and again, at the desire of another, time was spent in fruitless visits to houses. Once more, and earlier than on the former occasion, it was decided definitely to commit the need to the Lord, and count upon His promised aid. That same afternoon a friend called who had never before done so, and who knew nothing of the need, but who knew of the very place of the Lord’s appointment.
Again, this same household had been plagued with a succession of indifferent domestics, a cause of long worry and friction. When ten or twelve such had come and gone, it was resolved to risk no more trouble by leaning to thine own understanding," but in this also to acknowledge Him," expecting Him graciously to "direct."2 The next morning a lady introduced a servant who proved a great and lasting comfort, remaining for years, and only leaving to be married.
How gracious is our heavenly Father to concern Himself with these items of the lives of His children! How wise and blessed are we when we appeal to Him, and count upon Him! And since life is so largely made up of such small and personal matters, it is manifestly necessary that we should pray concerning everything, for thus only can the habit of prayer become so natural as instinctively to operate when life’s more serious affairs develop or its emergencies have to be met. We must "in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make known our requests unto God." This practice brings a deep tranquillity of heart—and this, in time, to even a naturally impetuous spirit— by preserving a rest-giving assurance of the presence of the Almighty One, Whose care and power are so often shown. "The Lord is at hand: in nothing be anxious," becomes an experience and a possibility; and so the peace of God—that calmness which is God’s own state of mind because of His consciousness of being always equal to every occasion—guards the heart and the thoughts in Christ Jesus.3 "0 Lord," said a dock laborer, "thou knowest the wicked men with whom I have to work, and how dreadfully they do tempt me. I need Thee every hour, yes, every minute, Lord; and I thank Thee Thou’rt always handy".
1 Php 4:6. 2 Proverbs 3:5-6. 3 Php 4:5-7. The man (I knew., him well) who thus talked with his God, and found Him a "very present help" on the quay-side, was one who never missed either of the two weekly prayer gatherings, and who sought his divine Father about every detail of life.