God can do more in a moment than we can do in a lifetime. Whether creating the universe with a word, splitting the Red Sea for the Israelites, enabling Daniel to walk out of a lion’s den unscratched, raising Lazarus from the dead with a word, walking Peter out of prison the night before he was supposed to be executed, the Bible portrays a God whose power and love is unstoppable and unending.
That’s why we pray. Or, at least, that’s one of the reasons we pray.
Unfortunately, most people don’t have a daily prayer life. The reasons for this lack of prayer are many, but the proposed solution to it usually includes something along the lines of “I’ll try harder” or “I need to be more disciplined.”
But I’ve found over the years that a change in prayer life won’t happen in any lasting way by simply trying to be more disciplined. I’ve had more success in my own prayer life and in helping others with theirs, in trying to be more childlike, not more disciplined.
It’s interesting that when Jesus taught on prayer, he didn’t start by telling us to be more disciplined, he said to be more childlike. When he teaches us to say, “Our Father,” he is teaching us to think of prayer as a Father-Child conversation. Jesus didn’t call people to a higher, more sophisticated spiritual level to pray differently, he told them to act like children.
As I’ve meditated on this truth over the years, it’s radically changed my prayer life from a “once in a while” prayer life to an “every day, throughout the day” prayer life. This change hasn’t happened because I’m strong, but because I’m more aware of my weaknesses. The more you grow up in Christ, the more childlike you become. And I’ve found that there are four childlike traits that every christian needs to see God work through their prayers.
Childlike Faith
Just about every child has a moment or a stage where they think their parents can do anything. That’s the feeling Jesus wants us to have about “Our Father in heaven” (Matt. 6:9). Because he is “in heaven,” he is unstoppable. Jesus is connecting the Father we speak to in prayer with the God “who is in the heavens and does whatever he pleases” (Ps. 115:3). Why is this so important? Because your view of God determines your practice of prayer. If you think he can help you today with your work, relationships, finances, or whatever, you’ll ask. If you don’t, you won’t. Battle the specific sin of unbelief that says, “God can’t really make a difference in my life enough today for me to ask him for that help in prayer.”
- What does your prayer life say about God’s abilities?
Childlike boldness
Most kids go through a long season where they don’t think twice about barging into their parents’ room in the middle of the night. Whether it’s a bad dream, they can’t find their blanket, or something else, they never apologize for the disruption. That’s a boldness that no one else could get away with. And that’s precisely what you need to have, especially once you understand the greatness of God. God’s power is matched by his love. That’s why we can ask the amazing God who “is in heaven” to give us “daily bread” (Matt. 6:11). Because he’s “our Father” we can approach his throne like a child, boldly (Heb. 4:12).
How can we, an unholy people, approach a holy God? Because Jesus bought our access with his blood. Our childlike boldness is a blood-bought boldness. He took our place on the cross to secure a space for us in his family. Because of this, we can be bold as we talk to God, asking God anything and everything.Do your kids get organized before they talk to you? Hopefully, not normally. Do they only talk to you about subjects that are “proper”? Nope. When you’re bold like a child, you feel the freedom to talk to God about what’s really going on in your life.
- What does your prayer life say about God’s love? Do you have a high enough view of God’s love that you think he will help you today if it’s best for you?
Childlike Specificity
The older I get, the more I struggle to come up with “gift ideas” for Christmas and for my birthday. It didn’t used to be this way. When I was a kid, I could throw out all kinds of worthless things I was dying to have. My kids are the same. Most are. I believe God uniquely loves specific prayer requests from his kids. Why? When we get specific with our requests, we give the invisible God an opportunity to become visible in our lives in a way he wouldn’t be able to without that request. Specificity leads to visibility. Don’t know what to get specific about? Pray your problems. Pray your plans. Pray your Bible. Fight the “vague prayer syndrome” and write down specific enough prayer requests that you’d know it, if God answered it.
- If God answered every one of your specific, written prayer requests, what would be different for you, your loved ones, your church, and the world?
Childlike Trust
“Ouch! I’m telling!” I heard my youngest son say, just before he made his way into the kitchen. After he told me what happened, I said to him, “I’ll take care of it.” With that, his countenance changed and he joyfully walked right back where he came from. I overheard him self-righteously say to his sibling, “Dad said he’ll take care of it.”
He didn’t, of course, know “how” or even “when” I’d take care of it. Frankly, shout out to imperfect parents like me, he didn’t know “if” I would take care of it. He simply knew “who” would take care of it. Because he knew who would take care of his problem, he walked out of that conversation without the burden he brought into it.
That burden-relieving, peace-producing, change-you-right-where-you-are-from-the-inside-out kind of interaction in prayer only happens when there is an unshakable trust in the one to whom you just presented your problem. That’s childlike trust. That’s wrapped up in the “your kingdom come, your will be done” (Matt. 6:10). If you have a God who is great enough to do something about your problems and plans, you have a God who is great enough to have a better way forward that you don’t understand. That’s why you have to trust God to do what’s best with your request. If you don’t trust him, you won’t rest. You won’t experience the “peace that transcends all understanding” (Phil. 4:6-7). Thank him for doing what’s best with your request before you know what he’ll do with it because you know WHO you’re talking to, not HOW he’ll handle it.
- Is there any area where you need to trust God to do what’s best for you, even if it’s the thing you most fear?
How different could this year be, if we started asking the God who can do more in a moment than we can do in a lifetime, to help us everyday? How different might our relationships, work, inner sense of well being, churches, country, world, be if we starting acting like children who have a Father in heaven who does whatever he pleases?
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