One of the privileges of adulthood is no longer needing to ask permission to get the cookies out of the cookie jar. We’re free to take and enjoy them at will. But this makes it hard to also pray to God with the heart of a child. It takes humility to ask for the desires of our heart without feeling like we must earn it.
To be sure, children are unashamed to repeatedly ask for what they want, and to beg and plead if it seems their desires might not be granted or even simply delayed. Of course, there is maturity in realizing we won’t get everything we want, as well as the value of delayed gratification. But perhaps it’s pride that keeps us from making bold and everyday requests to God.
To be fair, we likely don’t struggle with praying for major things in our own life or breakthroughs in the lives of others. But it seems a bit childish and humiliating to ask for God’s blessing in our everyday life. Isn’t this like a handout from God? Shouldn’t we be able to do it for ourselves rather than to bug him with these requests? Is this something we really need? We eventually talk ourselves out of praying, and pretend we don’t really want what we want.
Jesus makes it plain we must become like little children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It seems this would include having the heart of a child as we approach God’s throne in prayer.
Certainly, children are bold in their requests to their parents – confident they will be given something good. And it’s in this same spirit that we should make our request known to God, the big and the small. And maybe the humility required in these requests is part of the point – cultivating our affection toward God, as we trust his intimate goodness.
In the end, being childlike requires a position of humility – trusting God to give us the desires of our heart rather than relying on our own efforts.
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