Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father hear our prayers, and answer us. Father, as we call out to you, please draw us near to you. Tell us whatever you would like to tell us, Father, when we pray to you. Meet us in the secret place of our praying, and tell us great and hidden things we could not ever know without your telling. We love you Father, and long to hear from you and sense your presence. You call out to us to seek you. Help us seek you in prayer! In the name of Jesus, help us to pray, guided by the Spirit. Amen.
Your Morning Song: "The Lord's Prayer (It's Yours)" by Matt Maher
Your Morning Scripture: Jeremiah 33:3
Call to me and I will answer you,
and will tell you great and hidden things
that you have not known.
...
When I think of it now, I cannot remember exactly what I was praying about, but I remember being struck by my sudden need to talk to God. My wife was sick. My three oldest kids were at school. It was just my youngest daughter, Willa, and I at home. She was watching a show and I was in the kitchen.
And when the sudden knowing and feeling that I needed to talk to God hit, I did what I have been trying to do more of, I just knelt right there in the kitchen and prayed.
It wasn't too long before I heard Willa walking slowly across the house towards me. I paused, and looked at her as she came around the corner of the island. She moved slowly and looked at me very carefully, unsure of what was happening.
Willa did not come sprinting through the kitchen, screaming and laughing, or whining like she often does. She could tell that something was different. She's two. She doesn't understand yet, what I'm doing. But she knew that something different was happening, something important.
So I paused for a moment, and smiled at her, which she, of course, did back. And all was right in her world. And then she giggled, or growled, or both, and went back to playing. But for a moment I saw her notice what I was doing. She was watching me carefully.
How our children see prayer will have less to do with what we say to them about prayer, and more to do with how they see us pray. Is it an obligation? Is it something we only do at meals, and even then not all the time?
Or is prayer something mysterious and powerful? It is something that we need, that we crave, that we delight in? Is it both a steady, comforting ritual and a spontaneous kneeling? Do we come away from prayer with answers from our Heavenly Father? Do we kneel on the outside and the inside when we pray?
Our Heavenly Father promises to hear us. He promises to answer us. He promises to tell us great and hidden things we had not before known.
This is how we pray. And our children, our spouses, our family and friends, they are all watching. And they can sense in some way if it is a taxing obligation, or if it a Godly thing, full of answers, great and hidden, that we had not before known?
May we be a people who pray eagerly,
delighting in our God who answers us,
who tells us great and hidden things.
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