Have you ever rushed into something before you prayed about it? Yeah, me too. Have you ever worked yourself silly trying to do something and never took the time to pray about it? Me too! Have you ever not prayed about it because you’re sure God’s already doing his thing and it’s taken care of better than you could even ask for anyway? Oh my gosh, it’s like we’re sisters … I totally do that too! Get this, the majority of the time I don’t pray about things because of my extreme and utter faith in God’s goodness and power. He doesn’t need me to guide him. He doesn’t need me to tell him what’s going on. He knows every detail before I even become aware of it and he’s already got it all worked out. I spend most of my time thinking I’m just getting out of his way and trusting God, not going into the board room and helping make the decisions. In my realization that I’m not in control, I’ve forfeited the privilege that God has invited me in to take an active role in the allocation of his power. In my abundance of faith in his ability, I’ve missed his invitation to be part of his great works. I often don’t pray about it because I know God doesn’t need my input. And here’s what God revealed to me … he doesn’t NEED my input, but he DESIRES my input. He wants me to come in close enough to talk to him about the things he already knows about. He wants me to seek his favor and blessings when he already has my name written on them. He wants me to tell him I’m counting on him 100%, when he never intended to ever let me down anyway. When you fail to ask God, sometimes you miss his answers because you never formulated the request. You forfeit the opportunity to be in absolute awe over his power at work in specific areas of your life because you left it as a blanket prayer and God wanted to knit it all together piece by piece. You don’t see the knitting together if you’re just blanket praying this thing. Look back and you too remember those very specific prayers that God answered so clearly. It’s because you ASKED! James 4: 2 “You do not have because you do not ask God.” Oh my goodness, what are we missing in our lives because we never asked God for it? I wonder if he had the strength and willpower for you to resist that temptation you stumbled so hard into if you would have only asked him for it. ABSOLUTELY. God never wanted his girl to struggle with this. He never intended for you, his prized and precious chosen one, to fall into this temptation, but you didn’t ask him for the strength available to you. So you feel powerless, you feel defeated, you feel stuck because you lack what God had designed for you. Hey, you could start asking him now. For those of us who have young adult children who have left the house, we have an insight on the dynamics of this relationship with God. We have lived longer than our children, so we know a little better than them. If they would call us and ask us before diving head first into some of their stupid decisions, we would be able to save them so much trouble, but they don’t ask do they? They move out and they spread their wings and sometimes they dive bomb into world class stupid decisions. All while you could have saved them from that. You would have done anything to save them from it. But they were off living in their freedom instead of calling home to ask Mom for some advice. And how much more does God know than us?