This is the Truth Network. Encouraging prayer. God offers an open invitation for his people to talk with him at any time about anything. On Encouraging Prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the best-selling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray.
And now, here's James. Talk about fun today on encouraging prayer. We're going to be talking about how to pray. Like a little kid, like a child. How fun, James.
Yeah, looking forward to this, Robbie. I was at the vet today, and I saw a sign up on the wall that said. Live like someone left the gate open. Yeah. Ha ha ha ha ha.
Yeah, it really worked in that setting, but you know, I thought Well, gosh, why don't I pray like that? You know? Because I think that's what praying like a little kid is about. I think that's what God wants us to do. Who said prayer has to be boring?
What way? Why can't it be fun? Why can't it be wide open sometimes? And so there are just a few words I thought I'd throw out. When you think about little kids, and Jesus said that we're to come to the kingdom of God.
like a little child. God's Word tells us to pray Abba, Father, which is a very family term. You know, Jesus said that that unless we enter the kingdom of God like a little child, we we won't go in.
So prayer is a huge part of that. And so the first word that comes to mind is spontaneous. Because man, kids are spontaneous, aren't they? Oh, it's oh, absolutely. I remember my youngest daughter at the dinner table, actually, at a restaurant one time, and you know, I was saying whatever blessing and she said, uh Daddy, I prayed with my eyes open, and I think she was about four.
And I said, really? And I expected her to tell me how her little brother or sister or something. You know She wanted to keep an eye on him, and instead she says, You know why? And I said, Why, Mariah, why did you pray with your eyes open? And she said, So I can see God.
Oh, wow. Right, you know, yeah, and just think about that. I mean, pray with your eyes wide open, there are things around us. you know, I I'm looking down the street and I see the color red, you know, or or the the beauty of the trees or the sky. You know, I mean, there are just any number of things that we can go to and thank God for.
And I think we need to do that. We need to be a little more, you know, gate open, wide open. Here we go, God. I'm just thankful to be alive.
So spontaneity is a good place for us to start.
Now here's the second one. Repetitive. And just a phrase, are we there yet? Yeah. Yeah.
And that's a biblical prayer. How long, O Lord, is a biblical prayer, right? Oh, it's the 13th Psalm. I know it all too well. Yeah, there you go.
And again, we know so well the way Jesus tells us to pray: you know, ask, seek, knock, but it's actually keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. We are not going to wear God out.
So, you know, just praying, Lord, here I am again. I'm going to bring it up again. You know, and it's not that we're not yielding to him, but if there's a matter that is close to our hearts, And we know it's a good thing that we're asking for. Why not just keep on asking? Kids are repetitive.
God made them that way. And maybe that's part of what He wants us to be as well. I'm not going to forget that now because I'm like, are we there yet, God? I think he's that is so good. I love it.
I love it. What's next?
Okay, so the next is imaginative. You know? Think about that. Kids believe. And you know, um I I love what G.K.
Chesterton said about this. I quoted it before, but You know, he talks about repetition and prayer and imagination and prayer. And uh he says uh he talks about how kids delight in in repetition. And um And then he says, you know, children Children delight in it, but but adults, you know, we A child says do it again until the adult's nearly dead. But then he says maybe God says do it again.
Every morning to the sun, do it again, every night to the moon. And then he finishes with, For we have sinned and grown old, and our father is younger than we. I mean Think about it, you know? God is not tainted by sin. And so we can come to him and let him just, you know.
sort of blow our imaginations wide open with things that we can be asking for and and asking him to help us see things. You know, we may we may even see angels. We when we come to him with faith, And believe and ask. I mean, it's just the beginning of the wide open. that he wants to welcome us into.
Oh, that's beautiful. Absolutely. Spectacular, really. I feel like I've grown old compared to that. That is really, really cool.
So, I know, don't you have one more word? Yeah, I actually I've got two more. Oh, okay.
So okay, the next is generous.
Now we tend to think of, you know, when we think of kids, we think of two-year-olds and mine, but You know, sometimes kids are very giving. Our little boy was like that. And I'm sure he went through the mind phase a little bit, but you know, honestly, He loved to give, and I love to see that in him, because he wasn't so attached to this world. He was more concerned about just, you know, loving someone else. Yeah.
So we need to be generous with our prayers. We need to love God and love others. with our prayers. And so just just love to give. With our prayers.
And that's kind of tied in with the last one, which is to be affectionate. you know, to tell our other father we love him, to just go to him and caress him, if you will, with our hearts. And and you know, to to simply Um Love and adore our God. We sing it at Christmas of come let us adore him. That that's a sediment we sentiment we need to keep all year round.
Yeah, it's so beautiful. You know, I think about, you know, when my kids would see me when they were younger, you know, and I came in, boy, they would they were dying to jump on your lap or, you know, ride the horse here or whatever it was that was just spectacular. And it just convicts me, kind of James, actually, like, man, God, that's... Uh It should be all that and more, right? That's right.
And it's someone left the gate open. Yeah. Let's go pray. Play. Pray.
I liked it. In fact, I wrote it down when you first said it. I said, pray. Like someone left the gate open. Right.
Right. And there it is.
So I guess this is our chance to do that. Do it.
So, Lord, I thank you so much for this spontaneity of this idea, of the generosity of it, of the affection of it. And Lord, I pray that it would whet all of our appetites to be more childlike in our prayers and to enjoy that time with you to sense your pleasure and to sense more of that relationship. Uh is how fun. How fun to let the gate open. Lord, show us how to do that and be with us in it.
In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray.
