Pay Attention

At the beginning of 2016, we made a list. We, our missionary team and team of nationals, call it our "Big Prayer List" and it is a combination of prayer requests for each aspect of our ministry that we believe God can answer in this year. It's called "big" for a reason; we are asking big things of God that only he can do, but that we believe he can do for his glory. 

We pray over this list individually and as a team on a regular basis, but this week we looked at it in a different way. Item by item, we went down the list and talked about ways God has answered our prayers, and we found that he has acted on our behalf according to each thi we mentioned. 

I don't know why I was shocked, but I was. Why we are amazing when our great God does great things, I don't know. We know he answers prayers, yet we are joyfully surprised when he does it. It's a really good thing, though, this awe at God's greatness and power to answer prayer. May we never lose the wonder. May we always be blown away by his goodness. 

I showed the list to my friend, Gertrude, this week, and even though she can't read, I told her it would be cool to look at. "See each of these points?" I showed her the paper with the bullet points and read a few out loud to her. "These are the things we have prayed about this year, and God has answered each one in some way." She nodded her head and made a mmmmm sound in her throat and chest that told me she agreed and that even she caught a breath of that awe and wonder at God's faithfulness to answer prayer. 

"I'm going to start a list for you today," I continued, "because we are going to ask big things from God for you as well, and we will see how he is going to answer, and we will praise him for it together." She is going to come to my house every Thursday so we can pray together. I'm going to like Thursday afternoons very much. 

So when our team looked at our prayer list and saw the many ways God has answered, we dedicated a time of prayer on our knees just to say thank you. We read Psalm 107 together, and I especially loved the very last verse and how my French Bible (Louis Second) chose to translate it. It literally says, "May he be attentive to the kindesses of the Lord." In other words, pay attention to God's kind works on our behalf. 

Because we miss it, you know. We pray about things and then get busy and God answers and we don't even notice. Don't even remember to thank him. That's why we need to pay attention. Missing wonder or lacking awe in your life? Need a fresher-upper or a sense of renewed amazement at the Lord's activity in you and around you? Maybe the first step is to make a list (a specific one, with big requests that are in line with God's will) pray over it in faith, and pay attention to how God answers.

Then let me know how he answers because I want to share your amazement, too.