A Little Boy's Prayer

We were sitting there in church last Sunday evening. Elijah was between Geoff and I and Ethan in his seat on the end. Elijah has been doing great at sitting still and being quiet in church so I was surprised to hear him start to whisper during one of Rev. Smylie's prayers! I look over to quiet him and realize that he's actually praying! His head was tipped back and his eyes were all scrunched closed. Then it registers what he's asking God for... "please, give me a bike!"

My heart melted.

You see, we had talked about this during the week. Elijah had said he wanted a bike and I told him to pray and ask God for one.

The next day he came up to me and said very matter of factly, "God didn't give me a bike. You get me one." =) When he prays he expects an answer right away!

So when I heard his first, unprompted, from the heart prayer in church it melted my heart. I'd be interested to see to see what he does if he really does get a bike. Will he remember his prayer and thank God?

The little man's got faith. He told me that "God's gonna give me a bike."

It's funny the things people think about prayer and how it relates to God. Some treat it like a guinea in a bottle, asking for things and expecting God to give them what ever they want. Some treat it like a duty. If they don't pray a certain amount every day God's going to get them!

I don't have it all figured out either. Like the more people who pray for some thing or some one does that get God's attention more/faster than if only one person were praying for it? God already knows the out come. He's already there in the future at the end of it all. What exactly is prayer?

I used to think that once we prayed for some thing that God heard us so there was no need to keep praying and asking God for the same thing over and over. I feel that way with my son, if he asked me to do some thing, he doesn't need to keep asking and asking, it just gets annoying. But I don't think God is like that. And I don't think that way anymore.

I was reading Spurgeon's Morning and Evening Devotional and he was talking about Exodus 17:12 where Joshua was fighting a battle and Moses was up on the mountain all day holding up his hand and rod and prayed. He was up there and he kept on praying for victory in the battle ALL DAY!

Here's the whole reading: "And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun." --Exodus 17:12 So mighty was the prayer of Moses, that all depended upon it. The petitions of Moses discomfited the enemy more than the fighting of Joshua. Yet both were needed. No, in the soul's conflict, force and fervour, decision and devotion, valour and vehemence, must join their forces, and all will be well. You must wrestle with your sin, but the major part of the wrestling must be done alone in private with God. Prayer, like Moses', holds up the token of the covenant before the Lord. The rod was the emblem of God's working with Moses, the symbol of God's government in Israel. Learn, O pleading saint, to hold up the promise and the oath of God before Him. The Lord cannot deny His own declarations. Hold up the rod of promise, and have what you will. Moses grew weary, and then his friends assisted him. When at any time your prayer flags, let faith support one hand, and let holy hope uplift the other, and prayer seating itself upon the stone of Israel, the rock of our salvation, will persevere and prevail. Beware of faintness in devotion; if Moses felt it, who can escape? It is far easier to fight with sin in public, than to pray against it in private. It is remarked that Joshua never grew weary in the fighting, but Moses did grow weary in the praying; the more spiritual an exercise, the more difficult it is for flesh and blood to maintain it. Let us cry, then, for special strength, and may the Spirit of God, who helpeth our infirmities, as He allowed help to Moses, enable us like him to continue with our hands steady "until the going down of the sun;" till the evening of life is over; till we shall come to the rising of a better sun in the land where prayer is swallowed up in praise. "

That last sentence really stuck with me too.

What are your thoughts on prayer?