Is It Too Late to Pray?

Tonight I’d just like to share a quick thought I’ve had from time to time about prayer.

As many people can likely relate to, I sometimes promise to pray for someone, or even simply intend on my own to pray for someone, and then, in the busyness of life, I forget for awhile. Often it’s for a specific situation or event, and I find myself finally remembering to pray once the event has already occurred! In short, I’m sorry to admit, I forget to pray until it’s too late. But is it?

One time when this happened, as soon as a realized my error, I immediately modified my prayer to focus on the aftermath of the event instead, feeling the familiar guilt build up inside. But then a thought struck me – God is OUTSIDE OF TIME. Does that mean that even our belated prayers can make a difference? That He hears and considers our prayers during an event, even if they occur at the “wrong time?” The idea both fascinated and comforted me. If it were true, then I could confidently pour my heart into prayer, even if my forgetful brain didn’t quite time it right!

Now, I don’t know if this IS true, and I certainly understand that God has bound US by time for a reason, and that there are certain situations where “what’s done is done” applies. But it’s food for thought, and a delightful question to mull over until such a time as God makes the answer clear to us. Until then, I intend to pray boldly and sincerely – no matter how belated I may be. No matter what, when we pray we are drawing near to God, and there is never a wrong time for that!

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It’s Okay to Use Garlic Powder

Today was a good day, but a tired day. My usually GREAT-sleeping toddler was up at all hours of the night last night, and then of course my preschooler was still up early and, well, had to be taken to preschool! Whenever I have super tired days like this, I find two things particularly help me get through them: lots of tea, and grace.

Fast forward to later on in the afternoon, when I was making supper. I was on my third or fourth cup of tea for the day, and was chopping onions. That always goes quickly, and as I tossed them into the pot with the melted butter, I glanced at the next ingredient: garlic. Now, I had a whole bulb and a half of garlic just sitting on the counter within easy reach, I only needed two cloves, and now that I know the trick to peeling garlic, it really doesn’t take THAT long to mince up at all. Usually I do it without hesitation, because I figure, why use dried when you can use fresh? But this time, something in me was just so tired, I really didn’t feel like making the extra effort. As easy as mincing garlic is, tossing a scoop of garlic powder in is still easier! So I did. I reached for the garlic powder, and somewhat guiltily dumped half a teaspoon in, with the fresh garlic sitting right there in the corner of my eye.

But as soon as I did, I felt a garlic-sized measure of relief, and I was reminded to give myself grace. I remembered that garlic really isn’t a big deal. I remembered that sometimes, like when you’re ridiculously tired or it’s even an average busy day, you just need to do whatever brings joy and peace and makes things more manageable for you, even if that’s something as small as using garlic powder. So go ahead – use it as much as you need to! Because it really is okay. : )

It’s NOT All About Me

For the last little while, I’ve slowly been coming to the realization that I’d somehow drifted into complacency in many areas of my life. In most areas this was not to an extreme, but enough to make me discontent with what more or less felt like a bunch of selfishness and laziness. Sure, there were lots of things I wanted to do and ways I wanted to improve, but was I actually doing any of them? Not really, not many. I either kept forgetting, or just couldn’t muster up the motivation. I just kept drifting along…

Thankfully, God has ways of getting our attention. This time it was through several weeks of a Bible Study on 1 Corinthians, culminating with a long conversation with my husband. I was reminded that God has put me here for a purpose, and that purpose is NOT to float along through life, pursuing my selfish whims. Which I already knew. But He also filled me with passion and motivation to actually get back on track, to pursue GOD above all, and truly let go of control of everything else and let Him direct my paths. It’s such a freeing feeling! And exciting! I know He has good things for me, and living with a true sense of purpose is so fulfilling.

So what is all this purposeful living looking like so far? Well, first I sat down with God and made a big list of things to work on in myself and my area of influence. It is a little intimidating, but I know He doesn’t expect me to change everything all at once. And that’s a key thing in this process – aiming to please God above anyone else. Even if I look to myself for approval, or someone trustworthy like my husband, I know my efforts will not be as effective, or as rightly-directed, as when I keep God in the centre. I also know I need to be connected to Him to actually do any of this in the first place anyway, so I’ve been spending a lot of time asking how He wants to use me, and listening as best I can. Asking Him to fill me with His Spirit and the things I need to fulfill the purpose He has for me. And then I’ve just been jumping in and picking a few things from that list to start working on.

So here I am, writing a very self-reflective blog post, hoping that in my obedience to God in this area, I may be a blessing to someone who reads this. If you are struggling with complacency or something similar, I encourage you to take that first step to truly connect with your Creator. Be honest about how you’ve been feeling and ask Him to fill you with Himself, with His purposes, and with His power to achieve them. Sit at His feet and listen, letting His presence fill you. He will give you what you need (though it’s not always obvious at first!). The hardest part is TRULY letting go of your own desires and fears, but once you do… He will fill you with peace beyond understanding, and you’ll wonder why you didn’t give up that control sooner.

God is good, my friends. He loves us, and wants to make us into the best versions of ourselves, to change the world with His love, for His glory. All we have to do is take our eyes off ourselves and the world, fix them on Him… and simply let Him. ❤