Who Cares About the Details?

Many people picture God as interested only in the major
issues of our lives. But
He’s bigger than that.

By Cheryl Paulsen

Have you ever wondered if God cares about the little details of your life? Does it matter to Him if the washer breaks down when the budget is tight? Is He concerned when the children are cutting teeth and impossibly grouchy? Does He notice when we’ve a deadline at work and there seems to be no way we’ll make it? Life is filled with details. When they fall in place, we hardly notice them, but they can be a tremendous source of frustration when they go wrong.

A number of years ago, God gave me an object lesson in His concern about details. At the time, I was taking harp lessons downtown. This was before the days of parking garages every few blocks, so it was always a big pressure to find a parking place. My pattern was to ask for the Lord’s help in finding one. However, one day my work allowed me to leave forty-five minutes early. I thought, Today I have plenty of time, so I don’t need to bother the Lord about this. Do you know that I drove around until only minutes were left? In desperation I prayed, “Lord, please help me find a place to park,” and He did. He also let me know quite certainly that He was not “bothered” by the small details of my life. He cared and wanted to be involved.

This summer He illustrated this to our whole family when we went out of town for a few days. We had been exceptionally busy and so were throwing necessities together at the last minute. In our haste, we completely forgot to put gasoline in the car. When we were miles from any town, the fuel light on our dashboard came on. The thought came to mind that perhaps this was going to be a memorable vacation because our family would walk to get gas.

We did what most Christians would do—we prayed and kept on driving. When we finally came to a gas station, the attendant told us it would be closing in fifteen minutes. The week before they had closed even earlier. We knew God had worked a little miracle for us: our gas had lasted, the gas station was still open, and we got the best gas mileage ever in our car! God cared even when our problem was an oversight on our part.

The Bible says, “Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Luke 12:7). If God is concerned about the number of hairs we have, He most certainly is interested in the small matters of our lives. He wants us to involve Him and seek His guidance and help. What an encouraging and thrilling thought!

As I meditated on this concept, I began to think about His concern that we pay close attention to the small details of our Christian walk. What is our reaction to someone’s harsh words? Do we listen to or look at things that will lead us away from holiness? Are we careful to dress modestly? Do we exercise care in what we think about? Do we set aside time for daily devotions?

If the details of life matter to Him, most certainly those details we can control are important. How quickly the enemy of our souls will take an opportunity to use little situations against us. He likes nothing better than to fill our lives with distractions that will sidetrack us from closely following God. He is delighted when we slip into bad habits that dull the edge of our spiritual sword. And it’s most often the little items of life that do that.

It’s an awesome thought that a great and holy God, the Creator of the universe, is concerned about each of us and the small details of our lives. It is also rather awesome to know that He is holding us responsible for the small matters of life which we control. Let these thoughts challenge us to be certain every part of our lives is under God’s control. We want to remember that no detail is so small and unimportant that God is not interested.

Cheryl Paulsen is Corporate Secretary at the Apostolic Faith International Headquarters in Portland, Oregon.