“I’m pretty sure God has bigger things to worry about than this.”

There is a reason the concept of a divine being is so innately fascinating to humans. Deep down, we know all too well how limited we are. How could we not be amazed—if not at least a little intrigued—by a God who is limitless?

Our lives are like a passing cloud compared to God’s infinite nature. He is vast, and we are itty-bitty. We are straight up called dust in Psalm 103. ¹⁴ For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” And in the Book of James, humans are likened to mist.

¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

How’s that for humbling?

(Stay with me, dust-dwellers; I’m setting the stage…)

So, take your dust status and then open a newspaper or turn on a television. Problems, conflicts, fears and diseases abound. We’re talking large-scale crisis and calamity. And let’s just throw greed, maliciousness and moral decay on the pile while we’re at it. Sometimes I can almost imagine God sifting through our wreckage, shaking his head like a pained father, and yet, working it all out for good. The mess we live in can be overwhelming.

Take your dust and then take the perpetually pitiful state of affairs around the world and down the street, and you might be able to understand why I got this response from a regular churchgoer when I asked, “Why don’t you pray about it?”

“I’m pretty sure God has bigger things to worry about than this.”

Have you thought or said the exact same thing? How could you fill in this blank today?

“I’m pretty sure God has bigger things to worry about than _________________.”

Things at my job
 My finances
The state of that friendship
My anger
The sadness I can’t shake
The test I have tomorrow
My child’s behavior

You can almost dream up a cartoon-like image of the Almighty weighing our catalog of individual concerns on a scale against whoppers like genocide, slavery and hunger.

How can God possibly have time for and interest in my daily ups and downs? Certainly, some of my everyday prayers sailing upward from my comfy bed in my air-conditioned home must seem trivial and superfluous compared to the ones coming in from more cold, lost and desperate places and voices. Right?

Wrong. There are several errors with this line of thought.

It wrongly minimizes and sanitizes my view of my own need. Just because I’m not experiencing significant crisis or pain doesn’t mean I’m not desperate. Oh, I’m desperate all right. I need Jesus involved in my life today (a very average Tuesday) as much as I needed His ear when my grandfather died or after a nasty fight with my husband. Just because today is trucking right along doesn’t mean tomorrow isn’t going to swerve right into a ditch. See, our sorrows and sins can run rampant when we’re just coasting along, unchecked by a dialogue with the Lord.

By thinking someone/something else needs God’s attention more than we do, we are creating a false hierarchy that’s likely rooted in pride. I don’t know exactly how God works when it comes to answering prayer (surprise!), but I don’t think he’s got our petitions prioritized on one big to-do list. Romans 3:23 says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” If there’s a list, we’re all on the list.

It doesn’t account for God’s love of the individual. “I’m pretty sure God has bigger things to worry about” doesn’t leave room for relationship. When we have troubles big or small, we run to our best friends and closest family members. We share. So, why wouldn’t we take all aspects of our lives, good and bad, to the throne of our Best Friend Forever? (I couldn’t help myself).

Sure, he’s got the whole world in His hands, but that includes you, sister or brother. But how can this be?!?!, we wonder. We can’t relate to the way God views the macro and micro simultaneously, so we are quick to dismiss and doubt that He can be all, to all, all the time. Oh, I am so good at projecting my own limits on my Limitless God.

And still he calls out to me. Little, boring me. It doesn’t get much more intimate than Psalm 139. Look at how many times it reads “me” and “my.”

1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue, you, Lord, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 16 All the days ordained for me were written in your book
 before one of them came to be.

God approaches us as individuals first.

Just as dear to me is the parable of the lost sheep in Luke.

4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’

It reminds me that the Lord of billions is looking out for each of us. He wants to keep us close. The more I pray, bringing Him my life (even the most mundane stuff), the less likely I am to get lost.

God cares about the details of our days. We can put so much emphasis on the grand, eternal nature of God that we gloss over his painstaking attention to detail and affection for small things (like children and flowers). Once again, His immensity trips us up. Our tiny, time-bound minds don’t know how to process verses like Psalm 90:4: “For a thousand years in your sight
 are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.” A thousand years are like a day? Can. Not. Compute.

It’s so important to give equal billing to the verses that put God firmly in my day-to-day journey. I did a word study on the word “daily.” Here are some of the gems I found:

Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. – Proverbs 8:34

Give us today our daily bread. – Matthew 6:11

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. – Luke 9:23

And my favorite:
Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. – Psalm 68:19

If you’re like me, you’ll want to reread, say aloud and memorize that nugget of assurance. Put it in your pocket, a soft stone of grace to hold onto.

Think of the many burdens you’re dealing with today. He is ready to bear them. He is eager to take them off your shoulders as you talk through them in prayer. He is able to transform those burdens into blessings. Or at least lighten your load. But you have to come to Him; you have to hand it over.

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Yes, our sin-sick world is up to its neck in evil and sadness. Yes, it’s overwhelming and hard to fathom. But we have an unfathomable God who doesn’t get overwhelmed or tired or even slightly annoyed by His children’s countless concerns. On the contrary, He knows and loves us as individuals, and wants nothing more than to have us come into His presence, trusting Him with the very marrow of our days.

Praise be to the Lord, indeed.