Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
One of the obnoxious qualities we humans have regarding our prayer habits is to make lists and expect God to help us work through the to-do’s of our lives. True, I’ve seen the Almighty evidence Himself to me in the small stuff of my days, but I began to be concerned recently about making my prayer journal into a glorified to-do list with checkmarks in the columns when something I’d prayed about was accomplished.
I am dependent upon God to help me move through the overwhelming responsibilities of each day—recently I sat down and drew circles that made it clear to me how over-involved I had become in my living. There was the circle that included my relationship with my husband David and my extended family of four adult children and their four adult spouses and our nine gorgeous grandchildren. There was the circle of the responsibility of maintaining our home—laundry and repairs and gardens and cleaning and the daily straightening up.
There was the circle of Mainstay Ministries, which includes my responsibility for Hungry Souls and writing donor letters. Under that there was the circle of the Global Bag Project, a micro-enterprise that is growing mostly in my understanding of what it takes to make this kind of effort successful.
There is the circle of my board work with Medical Ambassadors International, a worldwide organization that is using preventive health as a means of approaching people holistically—the whole Gospel for the whole person throughout the whole world. Under this organization I’ve taken up the advocacy of the already existing program of the Women’s Cycle of Life and its growth throughout the world. David and I have been contracted to work for the next three years to put a public face through media for the general population to understand. Then, I have the circle of our involvements in our local church.
Obviously I need to go to prayer just to work through the requirement of each day so that I will function reasonably, efficiently, caringly and strategically. With some conviction, however, I’ve changed my prayers from “Do Thou for me, Lord…” to a Prayer of Collaboration. How can I collaborate with God’s daily plans and intents for the life He has in mind for me? How can I work together with Him to do what He intends for each day? This is a subtle shift—I always saw God answer my prayers and kept daily journals of how He reached into the moments of my days to help me—now, however, it feels as though I am in harmony with what He is attempting to do with my life, no longer that God is in harmony with me as far as what I want to do with my life. The difference is subtle and powerful.
See if you can make this shift and if the shift makes a difference in not only the way you pray but in the way your prayers are answered.
Next week, I’ll take this blog space to give specific examples of how these prayers are working out in my life, but thank you for letting me capture the five prayers I’ve been practicing on these pages.
I spy God!
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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.
Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.
Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.
For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.
Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
