When William (my seven year old little brother) prays before a meal, he doesn't just quick ask God to bless the food: he informs God about what he has been doing and what he hopes to do, plus a few more things for good measure. (Like, thank you for the food. Since that was kind of the whole point...)
Now, to some of you, this may seem cute. You obviously don't have lots of younger siblings. :P Just kidding! Though, at times we can get impatient with him and then we start saying, "In Jesus' name..." hoping he'll take the hint. :)
Anyway.
While pondering this, I thought, actually, that's probably a good way to pray. Often, when I pray, usually I end up praying for this person and that person and this request and that one, instead of sharing my heart with God.
I decided that it would probably be a good idea to start praying like William does more often. So, yesterday, I did. It was very interesting. I have prayed kind of like that before, but I was still kind of surprised how it went. Why, exactly, I don't know, since it's perfectly logical...
As I wrote each thing down, (lately I've been writing down my prayers) I would get a sense of either what I was doing wrong that was causing the problem or, what I more I ought to do on a project. It was really neat. :)
I would encourage each of you to make sure you spend time telling God what you're doing and what problems you've been facing. :) (Haha, I feel like I'm telling you something overly simple... but I think it's one of those things that we all know but don't apply like we should, so I'm saying it anyway. :))
Lately I've been really excited about prayer in general... it's just so neat to watch God working through your prayers! God is very amazing! :D
...Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise...
ReplyDelete-Matthew 21:16
Many times we forget that God wants to be our Father, not our C.E.O., and that He wants us to be His children, not His employees. He wants us to share our hearts with Him, even though He already knows their content better than we do.
Very good Scripture, Dakota. Very applicable.
ReplyDeleteThanks Carissa! I needed that.
I pray like that pretty often, too! It seems to add a whole new dimension to my relationship with Jesus -- not only is He my God and Lord, and the Creator of the Universe, but He has a personal relationship with little old me! We can just chat! :D
ReplyDeleteDakota: As Jay said, very good scripture for this post! :) Yes... isn't that amazing that the Creator of the universe wants us to tell Him what's going on in our lives??
ReplyDeleteJay: You're welcome! :) Glad it was helpful.
Andrea: That's great! :D It really is wonderful that we can talk to God like that... imagine what it would have been like before Jesus came! You'd have to go through the High priest! I think we sometimes take this whole praying thing waaaay too much for granted.
Hey Carissa! I just wanted to let you know that your faith has been an inspiration to me. I just awarded you with the True Faith blogging award over at my blog.
ReplyDeletehttp://nocondemnation81.blogspot.com/2010/07/true-faith-blogging-award.html
Thanks for sharing! I needed to be reminded of it too. God wants to be our Father. And I need Him, as a Father.
ReplyDeleteWith joy and peace in Christ,
Mrs. Mama Lauser
Dakota: Thank you very much! I am honored. :) It is neat because a few days ago I was thinking that it would be cool to get an award and then... here one is! God is good... He give us even our little "wishes". :)
ReplyDeleteMrs. Mama Lauser: You're welcome! I'm glad it was helpful. :) Yes, that's right! Me too. :)