The What of Prayer: Does God Care About My Hangnail?

While many churches still have a time during their worship service when those present may share their prayer concerns, several churches have quietly stopped this part of the service.  Many of them, who feel like the sharing was taking too much time in the service, have insisted that people submit their prayers in writing; these prayers are then either mentioned briefly aloud or just printed in the bulletin.

While it might be challenging for a 1000+ member church to share all their prayer requests during the service, I think that time is just a scapegoat for the real reason many churches have stopped this personal prayer sharing.  Many people are afraid what someone might say during this time.  In particular, many are worried that people will raise unworthy joys and concerns.  The easiest way to avoid this is to simply not give them the opportunity.

In private conversations I have with others about prayer, this worry about praying about unimportant or unnecessary things often arises.  There are things, people tell me, that they just don’t feel it is appropriate to pray about, especially in public.  Sometimes are joys are so frivolous compared to people’s pains and concerns.  Deep down, though, I know that people worry about praying about such things in private too.

Is it possible to raise something unworthy of God’s attention and care?  Is there some point at which something becomes important enough to mention to God, and we should just keep everything below that threshold to ourselves?

This is one of the ways that we cut ourselves off from God.  We imagine that God is a VIP executive who only cares about the important things.  If someone is in the hospital, God needs to know.  If your stomach is upset, better just keep that to yourself. 

But God knows about our hangnails and our canker sores.  God knows when we’re in a bit of a funk, or when the simplest thing has brought a smile to our face.  God knows about all of it.  It is impossible for us to keep anything out of God’s cosmic in-box; it is impossible for us to keep God in the dark about anything that we experience.

And once we learn how to be more open with God about the little things in our lives, as well as the big things, we can begin to learn to be more open with other people in times of public prayer as well.

Today's Prayer Prompt: Think of the silliest thing that brought a smile to your face today.  Make sure to thank God for it during your prayer.  And if you have a hangnail, pray for that too.