God wants to bless you in the specifics

Have you noticed how a lot of our prayers are just generic requests for blessings?

Like, we wake up in the morning and say, “Lord, bless me and my family today.”

If its about our jobs, we tend to ask God to simply bless us.  If we have a test coming up, we say, “Lord, let me do well.”

In so many areas of our lives, we tend to be quite lazy with our prayers, sometimes even hiding behind the ‘whatever-Your-will-let-it-be-done’ veil.

We tend to treat prayers about our lives, our families and our work as something generic that we just mention to God and assume that that’s all we need to do.

I design websites for a living; and a couple of days back, I was working on one of my client’s websites. The problem was, I just wasn’t getting the design right.

I was told to use the brand colours in a particular way. I tried playing around with them, and came up with a couple of options and yet, none of them felt right.

And so, very reluctantly, I sent the designs to my client, hoping that one of them would get approved, even though I wasn’t really happy with the work that I had done.

I closed my laptop and headed to the terrace of my apartment complex to workout for a bit.

I completely forgot about the work, and got involved in my cycle of cardio and weights.

And that’s when I saw it –

The evening sky, with a gradient of blue and pink colours – the exact colours of the brand that I was designing the website for.

And the way the sky was lit up, it was so obvious what the best way to design the website was.

I knew, immediately, what I had to do to make the design work.

As I stood in awe, I felt God the Father ask me – “Why didn’t you just ask Me to help you with the colours in the first place?”

I realized in that moment that God wants to be involved in my work – even in the specifics.

He didn’t just want me to pray, “oh bless me that I’ll be good at work.”

He wanted me to talk to Him about it. To ask Him for ideas. To ask Him what the right colors would be, what the right layout would be.

He wanted to be deeply involved in my work, along with every other part of my day – even in the specific details.

Why? Because He wanted to bless me in them.

Think about it. He is the Creator of the universe. Shouldn’t it be obvious that He would have the most creative ideas in my job? He didn’t just choose the brand colors, He made them.

And shouldn’t it be obvious that He’d be the best person to help in any and every job or task?

Studying? He’s the perfect teacher.

Working at the hospital? He’s the perfect doctor.

At the gym? He’s the perfect trainer.

Involved in music? He’s the perfect musician.

Isn’t it awesome that He wants to be involved and wants to help us, even in the details?

So often we fail to recognize this simply because we don’t ask. We’d rather go to God for the ‘big’ stuff in our lives and pray generic prayers, thinking they cover more ground.

“Bless my family, bless my work, bless my life.”

I wonder if God hears those and says, “Yes, I want to. But I want to do so much more. How do you want Me to bless you today?”

Because the truth is, He does want to bless you.

He’s not just the perfect designer, teacher, doctor, trainer and what not. He is also the perfect Father.

And like a good father, He wants to help you in everything you put your hands to – no matter how big, no matter how small.

I challenge you today – pray those prayers. Talk to Him about the specifics – about the work you do, the people you talk to and even the food you eat. Ask Him what He feels about them. Ask Him what He wants.

And be amazed as He answers you.