I pray all the time for various reasons, but some of those prayers end up being written down and put into something I like to refer to as The God Box.
The God Box is a small wooden chest that I own which is meant to hold all the prayers I’m still waiting for the answers on. A long time ago I realized that God wasn’t always going to answer my prayers right away. Of course there have been those that were answered immediately, but there have also been many others that weren’t. These written prayers are not necessarily just about me either. There are those too that deal with other people, places, and things and each of them are placed in the box as well.
I believe every single written prayer that I placed in The God Box is like planting a seed. At some point in time, I know that each of them will sprout. It may not be in the time frame I hoped for, but at some point it will. This of course means it requires patience and that’s never been a strong suit of mine. The God Box is a tool that I utilize now as a way to help me with those patience issues. So when I place a prayer in it, I make the assumption that God is now going to be fully in charge of taking care of that seed. If you’ve ever gardened before, planting a seed in the ground requires patience because some of them could take a year or more to sprout. I’ve learned that a prayer is really no different. My ego often attempts to tell me otherwise by saying my prayers aren‘t being answered, but the reality is that they probably are, it’s just happening in a way that isn’t meeting my ego’s expectations.
One of the examples of this is a prayer that’s been within The God Box for almost two years now and it deals with my health and healing issues. My ego at times has tried to convince me that God has forgotten about this prayer because I’m still dealing with high levels of pain on a daily basis. As much as my patience levels get tested because of this, I continue to leave that prayer in The God Box because I do trust that it is being answered, it’s just taking more time than my ego really wants.
I truly love The God Box I own because I have seen my written prayers within it get answered. I’m very grateful to my sister’s family because the one I have is hand carved from them. It sits atop my dresser and reminds me every time I see it that the prayers within it are really in God’s hands.
So the next time you find yourself regularly worrying about anything in life, I encourage you to find some type of a container that can be The God Box for you. Say a blessing over it and then write down your worry on a piece of paper. Now open that container and place it within, and then trust that God is going to take it from here. Your worry has now become a prayer for God to handle and trust that it will eventually sprout just like a seed. The only thing needed on your part from this point forward may be just a little bit of patience…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson