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I love when Hattie (our 1 ½ year old) comes to me with requests. Well, more like cries, but they are requests. And I’m getting much better at translating them to figure out what exactly it is that she desires – food, milk, a toy, a book. It is then a great joy of parenting to meet her needs according to her desires. I really love blessing her when she comes to me for help! What a feeling!

However, there is this other aspect of communication that I think I love even more. That’s when she comes to me, not with needs that need to be met, but simply because she wants to be with me. It’s when she runs over to me and gives me a big hug, or lays her head against my chest and nestles in, sometimes with a cutest little “awwwww” I’ve ever heard (that’s her way of saying “I love you!”). In these moments it’s not about her letting me know all the things I need to do, it’s simply her expressing her love to me and enjoying my presence.

I think there is a parallel here with how we pray to God and His enjoyment of us. Sometimes in the stress of life all we think about is our needs, and we come to God, rattle off our requests, and head out the door. Almost like Mary and Martha (Mary enjoys sitting at the feet of Jesus, while Martha is busy serving. Jesus tells Martha that Mary has done the better thing!). And when we examine these moments in prayer it’s like we never actually connected with God, never enjoyed Him for who He is, never praised Him for what He has done. God knows what we need before we ask Him right (Matthew 6:8). I think God loves it, I mean loves it when we run to Him because we just want to be with Him!

Today let’s focus our prayer time on enjoying God, for who He is and for what He has done.

Day 2 Prayer Guide:

• Ask God to help you enjoy His presence
• Praise God for who He is (What is it about God that you love?)
• Praise God for what He has done (What has He done for you, big or small?)
• Tell God you love Him

If you are the parent of a small child or are ever around small children, you know the all-to-familiar frustration that comes from the constant barrage of questions or seemingly endless repetitions of “Mama” or “Da-Da.” In my own sinful weakness, so often my response to my son’s endless requests for my attention is irritability, frustration and a heart that ends up wishing he would just stop asking. My response is usually something along the lines of, “if you ask one more time you are in trouble and you are definitely not getting what you ask for.”

However, when it comes to the heart of God toward his children in prayer, the dynamic is entirely different. In Luke 18, Jesus tells a parable about a persistent widow who, after endless persistence, wins the favor of a judge. The point of the story is that God WELCOMES our endless persistence in prayer. He even goes so far in Isaiah 62:7 to call his people to give him NO REST from our prayers–to literally PESTER him in prayer.

I pray more and more that I would see God in this light and that we as Harvest Church would as well. That we would be an audacious, bold people who engage prayer not as those scared of the Father’s scornful reply but as those welcomed children who have heard their Father beg them to come often to him in prayer.

Day One Prayer Guide:

• Pray for God to awaken your heart to a greater desire for Him.
• Prayer for God to grant you a hunger for prayer.
• Pray for God to unify Harvest Church as a family as we pray together this week.