A Happy Little Post on Prayer, Timing & Keys

Keep praying. Pray for the little things and the big things and the in-between things. Pray for all the things. Continue steadfastly in prayer, Apostle Paul wrote. It’s been on the my bathroom mirror for at least the last eight years.

I’ve written before about why I pray about small things. But, today, in the span of four hours, I was reminded again.

So this is the happy little post about not one, but two, happy little answers to prayer.

The Talk, and the Prayer for the Talk

I am thrilled to speak at the Empowered Women’s Retreat on November 9. (Ladies, you’re invited.)

If you’re counting, that’s 20 days away. Usually when I speak, I print my notes a month beforehand so I can “walk and talk” them. That is, I talk the talk as I walk my country roads.

But this time around, I’ve been behind. Stymied by the tyranny of the urgent, and the not-so-urgent, I haven’t had a stretch to focus in and hammer it out. I needed time to winnow and refine my overly copious notes on my topic, “Hope Groans.”

I groaned. And prayed for some time to really work.

Yesterday it came. Four, glorious, uninterrupted hours came. God gave me clarity and I didn’t stop until I had printed it out.

Then I resumed my hunt for the key.

The Key, and the Prayer for the Key

My son’s friend spent Friday night with us. But when he tried to leave, he couldn’t find his key.

We looked and looked. To the point of embarrassment, we looked. We dug under cushions, mattresses, pillows, seats; in boxes, backpacks, drawers, and cracks. But no key.

So I prayed. But the car slept in our driveway last night.

All I know is that when I pray, coincidences happen; and when I don’t pray, they don’t happen. 

Dan Hayes

Four Hours

This morning, after first service, I made my way to Diana. Saint Diana, whose mom Doris also went to our our church and happened to be a saint. (I wrote about Doris here.)

Diana’s what you might call a “prayer warrior.” She is faithful in prayer, and she cares. She’s been praying for the retreat, for its teachers, for me.

After church, Diana asked for an update. I told her what I just told you about how yesterday was a breakthrough day for prepping the talk.

“I had four hours of uninterrupted time to work yesterday and I’m in a good place,” I explained.

“Four hours?” she asked with a smile.

I nodded. “From 10:00 to 2:00.”

“Well, I prayed that you would have four hours to really focus. I know four hours is what it takes me.”

There you have it friends. Diana prayed specifically that I would have four hours. I had four hours. I printed the talk. To the hour, God answered her prayer

But that’s not all.

Car Key

After that happy little exchange with Diana, I taught Sunday school. We always pray in Sunday school. In fact, I tell my students that I have failed them if we don’t do two things each Sunday: open our Bibles and pray.

So we prayed.

But before we did, I told the kids about the four hours. I told them that God wants us to pray and he wants thanks when he answers our prayer. So I mentioned the lost key and we prayed, “so that if we find it, we can thank God for answering us next week.”

It didn’t take a week. It took fresh eyes and prayer.

After three sets of eyes and a collective hour of searching high and low, my husband came home from church and found the key under the couch, his words, “in less than thirty seconds.”

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

That’s Colossians 4:2. It happens to be the verse on my bathroom mirror that I look at every day.

This post is encouragement to do Colossians 4:2. And my thanks to God for the four hours and the key.

So pray. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. Pray, pray, pray, pray.

For big things and little things, pray. Pray for the sake of God’s glory in happy little coincidences (as if). Pray because God calls us to pray. Pray because our God cares about little things.

And because just maybe, in God’s eyes, all things are little things. Maybe even happy little things.

“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?”

—Jeremiah 32:27

Have you had a happy little answer to a prayer? I’d love to hear about it.