I call on you, O God, for you will answer me; give ear to me and hear my prayer. Psalm 17:6 (NIV)
My memory hasn’t been very good lately. I’m focused on some things that are consuming me so there isn’t much room to remember other stuff I need to keep track of. I was waiting for an email from my boss about something until she reminded me we talked about it on the phone. I was supposed to make a phone call for my Sunday School teacher last week and completely let it slip my mind. I forgot I already prepared the sacks for last week’s Pack A Sack delivery and was almost to church to do it when I remembered it was done. All morning today I kept thinking I needed to go home and let the dog out until I realized it is tomorrow I need to do that. And tonight, I stopped at the grocery store to buy something to cook for supper completely forgetting I went to the grocery store on Saturday and bought food for this week already. That’s how we ended up having Enchiladas for dinner tonight. When I walked into Publix, the Aprons lady was cooking Enchiladas and she made it look so easy. Plus, she had all the ingredients right there in the cooler so I didn’t have to wander around the store feeling like I was missing something. That’s the kind of shopping someone who can’t remember anything needs to do! The Enchiladas turned out pretty well though they were huge. Next time, I will cut them in half before serving them. If I remember. I have always been a list maker. In fact, I found an old notebook that had all kinds of my lists in it. Shopping lists, lists of Christmas gifts, to do lists (which all started with “clean kitchen”, you would think I could remember that) and even lists of pictures to get printed at Walgreens. The most important list of I working from now, is my prayer list. Mark Batterson, in The Circle Maker, teaches us to keep a prayer journal. He notes that if we don’t write down our prayers and the answers we receive, we forget to give God the glory. And the next time we face a trial, we forget how God helped us before. With my memory being as bad as it has been lately, it is a good thing I started a list back in January. By now, I would have forgotten the seven things I committed to pray for. I added another four, so there are a total of eleven things I have been praying for every day. Some nights, when I have been lying in bed praying before I go to sleep, I have to get up, turn on the light and find my list, because I know I have eleven things, but can’t remember all of them. Pathetic, I know. I am grateful for my list and even more grateful for the way I see God working in those eleven things. How about you, do you have a list?
I have a small notebook that I carry with me now. It seems the need for prayers is overwhelming these days – everyone needs prayers for something and I realized I was losing track of some very important ongoing prayers because there are so many new ones. Now, when I receive a new request, I can jot it down – then once a day, I can open my book and see all the prayers I need. It's very helpful! I have not been making note of results though, so I have something I can add to that!