Praying with the Audacity of a Child

I need to correct something about the way I’ve been communicating. 

These past few weeks, I’ve been encouraging you to join the Cry Out! Challenge. And then, I’ve been asking you to use it as a training tool for your True Girl. 

But that might be backwards! This week, I’ve been wondering if I should have invited you to be trained by your daughter.

What got me thinking about this reversal? Grayson’s prayer. 

Grayson is a little guy in my church, and a week or so ago his mom posted his bedtime prayer on her social media account:

Dear God,

Please put a forcefield around everyone’s house tonight.

Your name, Amen

Isn’t there something innocently powerful about that petition?

He prays audaciously because He believes God can do whatever he asks.

And his prayer was not selfish. He asked God to protect everyone. Not just him. Not just his family. Not just his friends. Everyone.

There’s something truly unhindered about the prayers of a child. They are pure and true. Powerful and simple.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so let me show you what I mean.

That’s my favorite photo from our fall 2019 True Girl tour. I’ve been treasuring it in my heart for some months. This week as I looked at it, I had a desire to pray like her.

I’m learning to learn from the faith of children. It’s not a new lesson. Mark 10:13–16 reads: 

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

When some people—probably eager parents—bring children to the Son of God, his disciples try to “protect Him.” Jesus rebukes them! Clearly, our Savior is eager to receive children and their prayers, “force fields” and all.

But He doesn’t end His lesson for the disciples there. Jesus also tells them that they should be more like the children in the way they come to Him. He invites them to learn from them.

Yep! I had it a bit backwards. 

Of course, you’re tasked in Scripture with discipling your children, so there is nothing wrong with the idea of teaching your daughter the importance of prayer and inviting her into a prayer challenge with you. But it’s possible that her prayers will arrive at God’s throne with a greater degree of faith than your own.

In the hand of God's Spirit, a child's capacity for faith is, in some respects, greater than that of a grown-up. At any rate, the faith of children is usually far more simple than that of adults. They take the Word of God as they find it and they believe it to be the very Truth of God. —Charles Spurgeon¹

¹ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “The Children and Their Hosannas,” Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 30: 1884 (Christian Classics Ethereal Library), accessed October 14, 2020, https://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/sermons30.xxix.html.