a little power outage

There is power in prayer.

I’ve heard that my whole life.

But since becoming a missionary and embarking on a lifestyle of faith, I have learned more and more about the power of prayer.

Franchesca Woodman, a powerful woman of God who taught my DTS a few times, once told us how, before she purchases anything, she asks God if she can. At first, I thought she was going a little bit overboard. But then, I was challenged to do it myself, and while I felt a little bit ridiculous sometimes, it was amazing to see how God blessed me.

Prayer isn’t all about bringing requests to God. It’s not a wish list or anything. But if we truly believe that God is a loving Father, wouldn’t we ask Him for what we need? Goodness knows I rarely hesitated to ask my parents for things while growing up (and even now, sometimes), so why would I stop myself from asking my Heavenly Father?

Recently, my trousers started to show signs of wear. The seams started coming out, the dye washed out, and the fabric got thin in places. I knew that I needed new trousers, but I also knew that I didn’t have the money to go buy new trousers just because I wanted them.

So I started to pray.

I asked God for trousers, and I found a sale at Gap over Christmas holidays. Luckily, I remembered to pray before I went into Gap to look. God said no. It sucked at the time, because I had Christmas money from family members that would just about cover the trousers, but I obeyed. A few days later, I was with my friends, and we ran into another shop that had trousers that I loved. I looked at the price tag, and I prayed. I got a no again. This happened several times.

Earlier today, my grandparents and I were out in Knightsbridge, and we passed Gap. They were in final reductions of their sale, and my grandparents and I stepped in. They had the trousers I’d seen at Christmas, and they were 75% off. My grandparents proceeded to buy me not one, but three pairs of trousers.

Don’t get me wrong; this does not happen every time that I pray. And it’s a kind of silly example, but nonetheless, I think it’s pretty clear. Sometimes it’s a challenge to live by faith and not draw a salary. Sometimes I get frustrated that I can’t just buy the things I want. But sometimes, when I actually tell God about my needs, He guides me into greater blessings than I would ever have received if I had tried to make my wishes come true in my own power.

God’s pretty awesome. If He can bless me with something as trivial as trousers, I can’t even imagine how incredibly I’ll see Him work in the areas in my life that are more uncertain.