Pastor Sam Crosby
San Saba’s First Baptist Church
January 14, 2020
My young grandson prayed before one of our meals last week, helped by his father. Phrase by phrase, he repeated words to God with his eyes shut and head bowed. Yes, I opened my eyes and watched him. He is learning that the food he eats is a gift from God. He is learning that God is good and makes us glad. He is learning that we need God to help us in life and that Jesus loved us enough to die for us. No one is too young to learn these lessons and learn to pray. It blesses the Lord to hear the prayers of children.
We are all children in God’s eyes. Matthew 18 records a time when Jesus set a child in the middle of His disciples and then said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (18:3, NIV). A child is not capable of understanding the deep doctrines of the faith or explaining the working of God in the world. He or she simply believes and trusts. The truth is, none of us will ever understand it all. Solomon wrote: “As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things” (Ecclesiastes 11:5, NIV).
Nor will we understand the mystery and power of prayer. God said, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3, NKJ). We are invited to call upon God. We are promised He will answer us. We are also promised He will show us things that we could never know. Why would we not pray? Why would we not take advantage of the privilege to enter into the throne room of Almighty God and make our requests know to Him? To pray is to acknowledge that we need God. To not pray is to subtly confess that you really do not need God.
Our church recently explored Psalms 141 in a Bible study. It is thought that David wrote the Psalm as he ran for his life from Saul. He describes his despair in life in verse seven, comparing it to bones that lie at the mouth of a grave. His tone changes in verse eight as he states, “But my eyes are upon You, O God…” He refuses to focus on despair and hopelessness, but rather focuses on the Giver of life and hope! Where is your focus today? Your attitude about life will be shaped by your focus in life. Why not turn your eyes toward God and pray?