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“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Matthew 7:7 (NKJV)

God cannot only meet all your needs; He’s also eager to meet them! But it’s easy to stop asking for His help and to start depending on yourself when you forget how committed God is to help you.

Do you only ask God for the “big stuff” and not the “small stuff.” Guess what? Everything is small to God. He has numbered every hair on your head and knows how many fell out when you combed your hair!

You’re not troubling God when you make your requests to Him; He’s the one who set up the prayer system in the first place. That’s why the New Testament tells you more than 20 times to ask for whatever you need in prayer. Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Sometimes, you just worry about it instead of asking God for something. Remember, if it’s big enough to worry about, it’s big enough to pray about. Worrying never solves anything, but prayer will.

God grows your faith and trust just like a parent teaches a child to trust. The Bible says,
“If you . . . know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give . . . to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13 NLT). 

It works like this: First, the child recognizes an unmet need. Second, the child expresses that need. Third, the parent meets that need.

God uses this same cycle to teach you how to trust Him: You have an unmet need. You express that unmet need to God. He meets that need, and you learn to trust Him more. 

How can you grow in trust if you’re not expressing your needs to God? 

When you make your requests to the Lord, He always proves His goodness. However, there are times you’ll have to wait patiently for God’s timing to answer. There are times He is not immediate with His answers because He wants to test your faith.

Go ahead—give it a try. Bring your needs to the Lord in prayer. Then wait and watch for the ways He answers your prayers and meets those needs. This way, you’ll learn to trust that God is reliable and that you can count on Him, no matter what.

Ask, answer, and apply:

• What lies about myself or God keep me from asking for His help?
• One of the main ways God tests my trust and faith in Him is through my finances. Why do I think this is so?

What do I need help with today? I will start by expressing gratitude for what God has done for me and then ask for His help.

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“…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”
Hebrews 12:1 (NKJV)

If you can’t find the motivation to clean your physical house, then cleaning your spiritual house may seem like an enormous task. But this is where you need to put your focus and best energy—because God wants you to use your life to become more like Him. And to do this sometimes requires you to make difficult choices and changes.

The Bible says it like this: “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1 NKJV)

To choose what you need to clean in your spiritual house, you must decide what changes need to be made in your life. Ask yourself questions like, what is hindering me from moving forward in my spiritual growth?

If you want a healthy body, you may need to keep more nutritious food in your house or create a meal plan. Or maybe you must commit to exercising regularly, even if you start small with 10-15 minutes daily. 

If you want a healthy mind, you may need to unsubscribe to magazines or block channels. You may need to delete some apps or set healthier screen time boundaries.

If you want a healthy schedule, you must decide what’s most valuable to you.

Then you can remove some less-valuable activities—sometimes even good ones—so that you can focus on ones even more valuable to you.

If you want a clean heart, you need to pray, ask God what you need to confess, and then confess those things. This can be the most challenging step of spiritual cleaning.

Through confession, you’re recognizing and rooting out sins that cause unhealthy habits throughout your spiritual house.

The Bible says in Ephesians 4:22, “…put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts [desires]” (NKJV).

It’s time to clean house—but it’s not a one-time practice. Just like you must clean your physical home regularly, you must ask hard questions to identify what spiritual rooms need a good cleaning. Then, with God’s blessing, you get to work.

Ask, answer, and apply:

• Why is it essential to invest time in prayer before I try to clean up any area of my life?
• What area of my life do I find it most difficult to change?
• When will I spend some time today talking to God about where I need to do some cleaning in my life? Then I will confess my sin to Him and ask for grace to do the hard but valuable work of change.

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I’m a fan of the game of baseball. Baseball players, especially professionals, will tell you that baseball is a grind. It is a game played daily, with maybe one day off a week. As a fan, I enjoy it. I can sit and watch my favorite team almost daily (although I am too busy to do it…perhaps because I am in my own grind). The players, though, are the ones out on the field grinding out game after game.
 
Pastoring and leading is a grind—a daily battle. Sermons to prep, meetings to plan and lead, counseling sessions, and administrative decisions, and you would have only reached Tuesday of any given week. And yes, the spectators (congregants) can sit, watch, and enjoy the fruit of our hard labor while we grind.
 
There is joy in this grind, though—if we are careful enough to seek it and make room for it.
 
Here are three ways I found joy in my pastoring and leadership grind. I believe you who do any kind of leadership can find joy in your leadership too. I would love to hear how you find joy in your grind.
 
Grace: My spiritual story is one of radical transformation, from almost never stepping foot in a church until I was 16 to becoming a pastor for over 40 years, and now leading a ministry with so much happening and so many amazing stories in between. I’ve tasted grace and have not lost that taste. There is joy in the grind when we feast on the grace of God. Pastoring is a high and noble calling, and God still lets you do it. I say that in love and because it was certainly true for me. You are where you are because of the grace of Jesus in your life. Pull back from the hectic pace and soak in grace. God has been good, is good, and will be good to you. Let His grace set wind to your sail this week.
 
Pace: I could not do it all. My body and others told me so, loudly and clearly. I’m grateful I pushed aside my pride and realized they were both right. I grew comfortable with how God wired me and chose not to compare myself to other pastors and leaders (at least, not too much). I am who I am, and God, who is all-wise, put me where I could flourish just as I am, not someone else. Let me encourage you to find a pace that is sustainable for you. This is where you will find joy in the grind when you rest in the God who knows you and your limitations and has placed you right where He wants you.
 
Space: While pace is a big-picture focus, space is about the little moments that come week in and week out. I learned to purposely leave room in my weekly schedule to just give God space in my “grind.” An empty space on my calendar that was guilt-free. Those of us on staff at Make It Clear Ministries call this “going dark.” It means shutting off our technology devices. For me, I would use this time to read something enjoyable or what would recharge me, sit in my favorite spot and spend time with Jesus, or enjoy a fun time with my family. The point was not to pack my calendar so full there was no room for me to just enjoy God in the “ordinary” of life.

Guard your week. The grind will always be there, but you don’t always have to grind.