Faith Matters Podcast

Childlike Prayer; Day 5

Childlike Prayer; Day 4

Childlike Prayer; Day 3

Childlike Prayer; Day 2

One of the biggest signs of the ongoing presence of sin in our lives is prayerlessness. Prayerlessness says, “I don’t need to ask God to help me with my daily life.” Another way of talking about this sin of prayerlessness is in terms of pride. Pride doesn’t think it needs God’s help. Pride thinks that more will be accomplished today by skipping a time of prayer and starting to do the tasks for the day. Our prayer life, more than anything else, shows us how much pride is in control of our hearts.One of the keys to a flourishing, daily prayer life is battling the pride that stands in the way of it. You have to fight to embrace your childlike identity by fighting pride with the words of Jesus, who said, “for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Daily prayer happens when we see through the delusions of pride that say we don’t need to ask God for help. Others show that they struggle to embrace their childlike identity by believing that they need to use a sophisticated strategy to talk to God in prayer. But God doesn’t want us to look at prayer like that. No decent parent makes their kids speak to them perfectly for them to hear and help. When you think you must have a perfect presentation, or even a perfect “record” for the day, for your heavenly Father to hear your prayers, you show you don’t understand the greatness of his love and grace. Normal parents don’t stop taking care of their kids, wanting to do what’s best for their kids, when they aren’t asking or living perfectly. Why would we think God would do less than that?We, of course, can overreact and think that our lives don’t matter at all. If a child is consciously rejecting the parents’ clear instructions, parents understand that if they don’t address the problem, they are enabling and training the child to do the wrong thing. That’s what Jesus’ half-brother James was talking about when he told Christians that they weren’t receiving answers to prayer, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3). Part of embracing a childlike identity is taking seriously the command to do your heavenly Father’s will. Will you be perfect? Nope. Jesus knows you’re not perfect, that’s why he came to save you. But his grace doesn’t just change your standing before him; when it is received by faith, it changes the direction of your life. While complete change won’t be likely today, genuine change will.That’s why Jesus wants his listeners to embrace their childlike identity. If you want to learn to pray, you need to remember who you are. You’re God’s child, so this daily act that leads to daily prayer marked by boldness is for problems and plans that are big and small. When you truly see who God is as your heavenly Father and who you are as his child, no request is too small for him to hear and help.

Childlike Prayer; Day 1

If normal dads want to do what’s best for their kids, how much more should we expect the perfect, heavenly Father to always do what’s best for his kids? Jesus made this point to another audience filled with good folks like you and me. He said, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11).Jesus starts his teaching on prayer by clarifying how he wants his listeners to view the God to whom they are speaking. Because your view of God will determine your practice of prayer. And your practice of prayer will reveal your view of God.But Jesus doesn’t just tell us that we are talking to a God who is “Father,” so we know he is willing to help. He also tells us that we are talking to a God who is “in heaven,” so we know that he is able to help. “In heaven” isn’t meant to communicate distance; it’s meant to communicate competence. Because God is “in heaven,” he is unstoppable.Jesus is connecting the identity of the one we are speaking to in prayer with the God who “is in heaven and does whatever he pleases” (Psalm 115:3 CSB); the one for whom “all things are possible” (Mark 10:27); the one who easily brought about every miracle we find in Scripture. His power is unmatched and unending. And he never needs a break when he does more in a moment than we can do in a lifetime.Jesus wants us to know from the very beginning that we are speaking to a God who is endlessly capable and eagerly willing to do what’s best for his kids. He wants us to have so high a view of God’s power that we really believe he can make a difference in our inner thought life, health, relationships, finances, work life, and more, and a high enough view of God’s love that we really believe he is eagerly working to do what’s best in our lives.Do you view God like this?How do you know what your heart really thinks about God’s ability or willingness to help you with your problems and plans? Look at your prayer life. If you are daily asking God for help, you have a heart that believes in God’s ability and love. If you aren’t asking, you don’t.When we say that we’re too busy to pray, our lives are saying, “It is more productive for me to get to work than to ask God to help me with my work.” That shows that we aren’t seeing who God is and what he can do rightly. Jesus designed our prayer life to change our perspective. And at the heart of this change is a change about how we view God, from thinking he is unable or unwilling to help to knowing he is able and willing.

Better Than Normal; Day 5