By Andrew Greenhalgh, Life Group leader, Jubilee Church Wirral

Matthew 10:29: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.”

As I sat down to write this blog, my long-suffering wife set off to pick up our children from school.

Ten minutes later, I received a text asking me to pray. There was no umbrella in the car and the heavens had opened. She faced being soaked to the skin. Not a good thing.

So, naturally, I prayed for the rain to stop and for my wife to be able to pick up my son from school without getting drenched.

And, what do you know? It worked. The rain ceased before she had to get out of the car and all was well.

I felt this was an appropriate subject for a blog because I know for an actual fact that some people struggle to pray for certain things, or certainly to ask for prayer.

Some of us seem to have an idea that God is only interested in the big stuff. Yes, it’s fine to pray for whether or not you should take that job, they reason, but asking for help getting a good night’s sleep or finding a car parking space? Don’t be ridiculous. God’s not interested in little details like that!

Well, that’s just not true. God is interested in every tiny detail of our lives. The Bible reminds us on various occasions about God’s attention to detail:

Psalm 147:4: He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.

Matthew 10: 30: And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Jesus wants to have an intimate relationship with every single one of us, and that means telling Him every detail of our lives and asking for His help.

Sometimes He will leave us to make our own decisions, and sometimes He will not provide us with the answers we are looking for. But that doesn’t mean He doesn’t want to hear what we have to say.

We can also be terrible judges of whether or not something is a big deal or not. As a Life Group leader, I can think of many an occasion when people have eventually asked for prayer for something that’s been going on for some time. When asked why they hadn’t asked for prayer for it before, they’ve often responded with something along the lines of “I didn’t think it was very important!”

Cue mass incredulity in the room and responses of “Don’t be daft! That’s what we’re here for and if it’s on your mind then we want to pray for it!”

Ultimately, not asking God for help is like saying we don’t think He can help in this situation. And none of us seriously believes that, do we?

So do me a favour, would you? Ask God for help in all situations. He wants to play an active role in our lives and you never know what might happen.

Andrew Greenhalgh with his wife Julie