Continuing from a previous post * “The Real You,” author Paul E. Miller shares:
How do we learn to talk with our Father? By asking like a child, believing like a child, and even playing a child.
Let’s do a quick analysis on how children ask. What do they ask for? Everything and anything. If they hear about Disneyland, they want to go tomorrow. How often do children ask? Repeatedly. Over and over again. They wear us out. Sometimes we give up just to shut them up. How do little children ask? Without guile. They just say what is on their minds.They have no awareness of what is appropriate or inappropriate.
Jesus tells us to watch little children if we want to learn how to ask in prayer. After introducing the idea of bold asking in the Sermon on the Mount (“Ask, and it will be given you”) he tells us why we can boldly ask. “Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 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 7:7, 9-11).
When our son John was six months old, he stuck out his hand in the general direction of the butter and said “bubu”. We didn’t say, “John you must say ‘please’. And it’s not ‘bubu,’ but B-U-T-T-E-R. Furthermore, there is a self-orientation that if left unchecked will ruin your life.” Bubu was our son’s first word, so we laughed and gave him the butter.
Kim got her first speech computer when she was five years old. We took her down to the Jersey store for vacation. We explained the keys to her and waited. She leaned over and pressed the key with little McDonald’s golden arches on it. The electronic voice came to life and said “McDonald’s.” It was two o’clock in the afternoon, and we had just eaten lunch. We dropped everything, leapt into the car with Kim, raced off to McDonald’s, and got Kim a hamburger and a soda. We were thrilled. It wasn’t long before she was ordering her entire meal at McDonald’s. She is particularly happy if Mom isn’t around so she can have french fries.
If we earthly parents, with all our brokenness, still give our kids good gifts, won’t our heavenly Father do even more? Our kids’ requests, no matter how trivial, tug our hearts. God feels the same.
Being Like a Child: The second thing we must do in learning to pray is believe like a child. Children are supremely confident of their parents love and power. Instinctively they trust. They believe their parents want to do them good. If you know your parent loves and protects you, it fills your whole world with possibilities. You chatter away with what is in your heart.
It works the same in the world of prayer. If you learn to pray, you learn to dream again. I say again, because a child naturally dreams and hopes. To learn how to pray is to enter the world of a child where all things are possible. Little children can’t imagine that their parents won’t eventually say yes. They know that if they keep pestering their parents, they’ll eventually give in. Childlike faith drives this persistence.
But as we get we get less naive and more cynical. Disappointment and broken promises are the norm instead of hoping and dreaming. Our childlike faith dies a thousand little deaths. Jesus encourages us to believe like little children by telling stories about adults who acted like children: the parable of the persistent widow, who wouldn’t take no for an answer from an unjust judge (see Luke 18:1-8) and the parable about a man who badgers his neighbor to lend him three loaves of bread at midnight (see Luke 11:5-8).
On the rare occasion when Jesus encounters an adult who believes like a child, he stands on a soapbox and practically yells, “Pay attention to this person. Look how he or she believes!” He only does that twice; both times the person was a Gentile, from outside the community of faith. The first is a Roman officer, a centurion, who is so confident of Jesus’ ability to heal his paralyzed servant that he asks Jesus to heal, without even visiting his home. He tells Jesus, but say word and let my servant be healed. (Luke 7:7) Jesus is stunned. He turns to the crowd following and says, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith” (7:9). The second is a Canaanite whose daughter is possessed by a demon. Even though rebuffs her, she keeps coming back. Jesus marvels at her faith giving her his second Great Faith Oscar: “Woman, great is you faith! Be it done for you as you desire” (Matthew 15:28).
In the last chapter we saw that believing the gospel—knowing God’s acceptance in Jesus—helps us to come to him messy. Now we see the gospel also frees us to ask what is in our hearts.~~~Paul E. Miller A Praying Life (Nav Press, Colorado Springs, Co Tyndale) p. 25-27
(Posts with a preamble asterisk * are for a general audience. . . not specific to teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
