A visiting missionary to India recounted this prayer-experience. His mechanical pencil had run out of lead, and though he was in a large city, he had difficulty finding replacements. Shop after shop had none. He finally resorted to prayer, asking God for directions. The very next shop he visited had the needed leads. This answered prayer saved him time and energy and left him joyful.
Some might react: “Really? Why bother the Lord with a thing so trivial? He probably would have found his leads soon enough without his silly prayer.”
Is there any prayer too silly or trivial for the Lord? He tells us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17); that we have not because we ask not (James 4:2); that whatever we pray in Jesus’ name He will grant (John 14:13). The missionary needed leads for his Kingdom work. He asked, and the Lord answered, to the glory of God.
Recall the time when good King Hezekiah prayed for his life (2 Kings 20). He became deathly ill, and the Lord told him he would soon die. But the king turned his face to the wall in tears and prayed. The Lord granted him an extra fifteen years.
Then there is the time when the people should have prayed and did not. It happened early in the Israelites conquest of Canaan. One day they were met with a peace delegation from a supposed far country. This delegation looked and played the part: worn-out sandals, dusty clothes and moldy bread; and a good story about their desire to establish a peace covenant with God’s people. It should have sounded suspicious, especially in view of God’s command to cleanse the promised land of heathen inhabitants and have no fellowship with them. Was the delegation of strangers from a far land? No. They were Canaanites living right down the road. Instead of asking the Lord for guidance, the Israelites entered into a peace treaty with the Gibeonites. This would affect them in the years ahead. It already revealed their propensity to seek safety through treaties, instead of trusting in the Lord and relying on His strength. It was surely a time when they should have prayed for guidance and did not.
Then there was the time when a prayer was offered, but should not have been. After the city of Jericho was conquered by the Lord’s wall-tumbling power, the Children of Israel next set their sights on the small town of Ai. It was so small that Joshua sent only a detachment of 3000 men to take it.
But Israel got smoked, and good. They not only failed in their effort but were chased in ignominious defeat. Thereupon Joshua prayed to the Lord. But it wasn’t a good prayer, or wise. It was a prayer in which he blamed the Lord for the embarrassing debacle. He accused the Lord of going back on His promise of victory (Joshua 7).
The Lord replied by telling Joshua to get up from the ground, and quit playing the blame game. The fault lay with his people! Joshua should have put two and two together. The Lord had commanded that none of the accursed spoils of war from Jericho were to be kept. But the family of Achan saved some, and the defeat at Ai was the result.
Lesson: when you pray don’t complain and blame God for something that is your own fault. Don’t pray for things that are obviously against His revealed will. Don’t pray selfish prayers, but pray in the Lord’s name.
Is there anything too trivial or seemingly unimportant to pray for? No. Pray, for the Lord loves to answer the prayers of His children. Pray for leads, pray for life, and pray for anything in between. Pray in His name, and He will grant it. He promised!
is a retired pastor. He lives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
