YIKES - Part 2

by Tricia Dunton

WHAT CAN I DO?

I’m wrestling with the feeling of being such a small drop in the giant ocean of problems. Trying to figure out: what can I do? How do I make any difference in larger issues? In my previous post I talked about human trafficking and I struggle to think how a mom of two young boys, living in Chicago, with a husband in seminary, can really do anything about something so huge. I’m totally powerless so maybe I just don’t try at all. This is where God showed me the verse from Haggai that just called me out and smacked me in the face. So, what can I do to help rebuild the Lord’s house? And again, I often come up short.

My in-laws have always had a verse hanging above their fireplace where most people put the pictures of their families. It’s the most central place in the house and you absolutely cannot be in their house without seeing it. I absolutely cannot be in their house without being convicted by it. It reads, “If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14).

There is nothing more powerful that we can do than to pray. Fervently pray. Humbly pray. But is this where I end up when I feel most powerless? Not usually. I don’t automatically rely on prayer—not true prayer. I rely on prayer when I’m getting a little short with my toddler or I sneak it in when I want a really good parking spot at Target but I’m not falling on my face, heart breaking, humbly coming before the Lord of the universe asking Him to use me. And if I’m not, then what does that say I believe about him? Do I believe who He says He is?

Prayer almost always precedes change. Good change, God-lead change, bold changes are most definitely preceded by prayer. But do we pray dangerously and boldly? Are we asking God for big enough things that our own faith is being stretched? Do our prayers and our requests line up with the big God we say we believe in? Because our prayers will tell us what we truly believe about Him. Do we even really pray?

I mean REALLY pray. I know plenty of non-believers that when they need something, make the deposit into the request box and send a quick little prayer up to “whomever is up there.” Do my prayers look and sound drastically different from theirs? Or could they be confused? Do I put God in a box that my understanding has created? Because the God of the Bible definitely does not exist in that box.

Prayer is the place where our relationship with the Lord grows. It’s how our relationships with our husbands, kids, friends, family, anyone really grows—communication. Our closeness to God grows deeper as we pray. We learn about Him, His ways, His purposes, His character through prayer. We experience Him in prayer. We can only subsist outside of prayer for so long before the chasm starts to grow. And it can grow so deep that He starts to look really, really far away. And then we are left at the point of helplessness—not sure where or how we contribute.

So you may feel like you don’t know where or how you can be furthering the kingdom from your current station in life and I'm here to say that you can further it from the ground up, through prayer. You are not helpless in the face of these larger issues. As a Christian, you have the gateway to the only One who can help. Let’s start using that.

If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.