Counting My Blessings

Rain, rain, go away…

I wonder how many people are praying for the rain to go away today.  One dear friend asked us to pray for her son who is terrified of severe weather.  Many of us have prayed for rain to go away—it so often puts a damper (literally) on our day.  Picnics ruined, hair goes flat (or frizzy), car accidents, leaks, and flash floods are all good reasons to want the rain to quit. 

However, I can imagine that trees and flowers and farmers are all rejoicing in this spring rain today. 

As the dark clouds formed this morning, I was so tempted to ask God to hold back the storms so that my friend’s son would not be scared.  But, I realized that this particular prayer request would join a long list of my “to-do list” for God.  I’m constantly calling to Him: “bless this, protect that, give this, don’t forget that, take care of her, defend him, help me through this, guide me through that, comfort me, provide for me,…oh, and can you do it ASAP, God? Great!  Amen!” 

I mean, I know the Bible says to pray without ceasing and to let our requests be made known to God, but I don’t think that my “honey do” list is quite what God had in mind.  Don’t get me wrong—I think God cares about our concerns, our kids, our frustrations, our worries—anything that distresses us—be it banking or bras.  He is in the details and He wants us to depend on Him in all of these things. 

But the type of requests I’m muttering to God swing awfully close to demands.

Even if I do say “please” at the beginning and “amen” at the end.

My attitude strays rather far from “Thy will be done.”

In high school, I learned a cool acronym as a guide for prayer.

ACTS

A—Adoration

C—Confession

T—Thanksgiving

S—Supplication

Basically, it teaches us to come to God in worship and adoration for who He is before we do anything else.  

Then, in light of realizing how huge and holy and awesome God is, this should lead us to confess our inadequacy and wrong-doing.  Are you God?  Are you perfect?  No.  So, confess your mistakes.  Ask for forgiveness.  

Realizing His loving forgiveness should make us quite grateful.  So, next comes Thanksgiving.  Thank Him for His unconditional love and salvation.  Then, begin thanking Him for all the many extras He gives merely for our enjoyment: food, shelter, flowers, friends, children, animals, stars, raindrops, whiskers on kittens and the like.  There’s a whole heap to be thankful for!

Then, THEN, we can bring your requests to God.  (Supplication is just a fancy word for request.) 

So, earlier this week, I decided that I would ask our parents and a good friend to “supplicate” for us (on the matter of our house) so that I could stop begging for God to just sell the stupid thing already.  So, since my major request was being brought before the Lord by others, I didn’t have to keep thinking of creative ways to talk to God about this thing which is weighing on my heart.

THEN, I decided to try not to ask God for anything.

Yup, that’s right.  I was going to focus on the A-C-T of the acronym rather than constantly blathering on with the “S” part.

Anytime a concern came to mind that I would normally lob over to the Lord like a little “do this now” grenade, I was going to instead focus on expressing adoration for who God is, worshiping him, confessing my stupid, selfish sins and thanking Him for so many blessings. 

This week has been amazing.

Telling God I love Him, asking forgiveness for my faithlessness, and thanking Him for so MANY lovely things in my life has lifted my soul to new feelings of peace and joy. 

For one thing, I’m sleeping soundly.

You see, in the past whenever I wake up in the middle of the night, I take that opportunity to pray.  But, my prayers go a little bit like this:

Lord, please help me sleep.

Several moments pass.

Lord, ok, I’m awake, please help me know what to wear tomorrow.

Turn to the left side.  Flip to my back.  Blink, blink.

Lord, my friend just came to my mind.  I pray that you’ll be with her and give her all kinds of grace and just the help that she needs. 

Stare at the ceiling fan.

Oh, and I pray for my dad’s health, my brother’s work, my cousins kid, my daughter’s test, my husband’s meeting…etc. etc.

And sometimes, I fall asleep. 

(Actually, I do think that lifting OTHERS up in prayer is a fine way to spend a sleepless night.  You should try it sometime.)

However, if you really want to go back to sleep, then try gratefulness to combat sleeplessness.

In these last few days, rather than giving God directives, (“bless, help, keep, guide, give, protect, provide, do, act…”), I’ve been thanking Him and praising him.

The one time I found myself awake in the middle of the night, I began listing off all the things I was thankful for.  It’s just polite to send thank you notes for gifts, and yet, I rarely thank God for the sweet gifts He gives me each and every day.

I fell straight back to sleep.

My nights have been peaceful and so have my days.  Apparently, recognizing how worthy and powerful and wonderful God is puts a lot of my daily problems in perspective. 

The rain is not going away.  But, today, I am counting my blessings like raindrops and thanking God for His powerful presence in my life no matter what the weather is doing.

Amen and Amen.