What is prayer? Simple, you say, it’s our way of communicating with our heavenly Father. As God’s children, we have the privilege of bringing our praise, our requests, our questions and our concerns to the throne of grace! What could be simpler? Then why is it that so many of us get tongue-tied and unsure of whether or not our words are acceptable to the Lord when it comes time to pray? Women are known to be very adept at using words – so what’s the problem?
Maybe we think the process of prayer is more complicated than it really is and it prevents us from exercising our privilege of taking things to God as our Father! Perhaps our view of God is that He’s like a CEO of an important corporation that needs some kind of carefully screened and worded communication so as not to ‘waste His time’! Is that really what God wants from His children? As I study the scriptures to see what it says about prayer, I don’t think so!
Let me illustrate with a little story that happened several years ago when my son, Scott was about 7 years old. Scott had received a colorful nylon kite as a birthday gift in February. He was anxious to try it out and finally, one day in April it was windy enough to take it on a trial run. He took it out behind our house where the local ball diamond sits and ran around the field trying to get it into the air. After a few attempts, he succeeded! From the kitchen window, I watched his excitement as it soared higher and higher and higher and then………firmly tangled itself in the 30 foot spruce trees that border the ball diamond!! He tried desperately to yank the kite down, but to no avail!
When his dad got home, they marched out to try to rescue the tangled kite. Dad pulled, he shook, he shimmied up the tree as far as he dared, but the kite was not to be dislodged! The best he could manage was to break the string and some of the branches!
For many days, Scott would go and stand by the trees looking longingly up at his precious kite. The neighborhood boys would taunt him and say, “I’m going to get your kite down and keep it!” “I know how to get it down and it will be mine!” and they’d shake the branches and mock him until he bolted back home, holding back a well of tears.
One day, as I was working by the sink, I looked out and saw the colorful kite stuck in the trees, as it had been for nearly two weeks. It seemed to mock our futile attempts to retrieve it and a great sadness came over me as I ached for my small son’s loss.
“Why don’t you ask Me to help you?” I heard the Lord prompting.
“What?! That’s just silly to ask such a trivial thing, Lord! There are much more important things to ask of You – why should you care about a boy’s kite?” I argued.
“Try me.” He seemed to respond to my protest.
“OK, Lord,” I began, still feeling a little foolish for making such a request, “Would You please untangle that kite and bring it down for one very disappointed little boy? We’ve tried everything we could think of, but it just didn’t occur to us to ask You, Father.”
The air outside was as still as it could be when, again, I felt the Lord prompting me to step out in faith. “Scott, come and get your shoes on!” I called. Scott came upstairs from playing with a puzzled look on his face.
“Why, mom?” he said as he pulled on his sneakers.
“Because your kite is coming down, son,” I replied boldly. He glanced out the window to see his kite still high in the tree, gave me one of those ‘Are you crazy, mom?’ looks, but ran out behind the fence anyway.
From where I stood on the step, I saw a lone gust of wind come out of nowhere, pick up the kite, shake the tangled tail from the branches, twirl it in the air gracefully and safely land the kite about 5 feet from where a vibrating boy stood with outstretched arms! He ran back with his prized kite in hand – grinning from ear to ear, thrilled, but baffled.
“How did you know the kite was coming down?” he asked, shaking his head.
As we sat on the step together holding the kite, I reminded Scott how God loves us and wants to be included in every part of our lives. He wants us to tell Him about the good times, the sad times and ask for His help when we need something. I had been slow to ask God for help, but He had been waiting to answer all along! God had reminded me that He could take what seemed like an impossible situation and work it out for good – all I had to do was ask! We thanked God for His answer and celebrated the kite’s return!
What an elementary lesson we both learned that day about prayer!
These simple, basic truths about prayer can be found right in the Word!
“A” – Ask and don’t be Anxious About Anything! “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6 NIV)
“B” – Believe! “Have faith in God……Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11: 22, 24 NIV)
“C” – Constantly pray about everything! “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.” (Acts 1:14 NIV)
If God cares about a small boy’s kite, God cares about every detail of your life, too! Do you practice the ‘ABCs of Prayer’ in your own life? Or are you waiting for ‘important things’ or ‘the right words’ to say before you pray? I encourage all of you, especially those of you who are new in your faith, to bring every request to your heavenly Father in prayer. God is more concerned about the motives of our heart than He is about the ‘right’ words or requests. His answers are not always immediate, nor are they always the ones we expect, but He does hear and answer when we call out to Him in faith.
Sandy Semenyna, Baptist General Conference of Canada National WM Prayer Team Coordinator
