I volunteer in our church’s 5th and 6th
grade classroom. I learn so much every week, even though we are teaching “the
basics”. This week we talked about persisting in prayer. We split into small
groups, and I had a group of all girls. I talked about how there is nothing too
small or big to pray for, and the real reason we pray: for us. God knows what
we are going to say, and what is on our hearts. He does not benefit from our
prayers. We pray to grow closer to Him. To nurture the most important
relationship we will ever have. One
of the girls who I know struggles at school raised her hand. She began to talk
about last year her best and only friend moved away, and there was no one to
talk to or be there for support when she was bullied. She said she started to
do things that were “weird” (her description). She started to pray constantly,
and her heavenly father comforted her and convicted her. She began to make
better choices and felt better about herself. This little girl taught more
about what I was teaching her. God doesn’t need our prayers, but we do.
Key scripture:
“Ask, and
it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened
to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the
one who knocks it will be opened. Or 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 7:7-11 ESV)
And he told
them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor
respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and
saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but
afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet
because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she
will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what
the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry
to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?
(Luke 18:1-7 ESV)
….Praying
at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep
alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also
for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim
the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may
declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
(Ephesians 6:18-20 ESV)
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