II Chronicles 1:7 “In that night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, ‘Ask what I shall give you.’”

PRAYER TIME

Okay, just imagine! You are in your prayer time. You are diligently asking the Lord to bless those in your family, the missionaries you know and support, our country, etc. All of a sudden you hear “Ask what I shall give you.” Man, I would probably freak out!

But then, does your mind go to that new Nitro bass boat or the condo on the beach or…?   You fill in the blank. Or does your mind automatically go to asking for wisdom to guide your family? Now, isn’t that a humbling thought? Too many of us might jump at the chance to ask the “cosmic genie” for stuff we think we need. Yea, I said that. We do treat God that way some times. We just ask for stuff we think we need.

TEACHING MOMENT

So, how do we point our children to asking for godly things like wisdom, grace, mercy, tenderness, kindness and love for our brothers and sisters? They have to hear us praying for the same things. Once again, Mom and Dad, we model the behavior.

Now there is nothing wrong with asking God to meet a need in our lives. He wants us to do that. He expects us to do that. I believe He is disappointed when we don’t ask Him to meet our needs. He loves us so much that He wants us prepared to serve and meeting our needs allows us to do just that.

Perhaps your kids can teach you to pray this way. They haven’t learned how to pray wrong yet. They just pray and ask God to bless everyone, including your cat. Simple, pure prayers to someone they love. How about that? The child teaches the parent. Who would have thought?