Day Eighteen

PRAY

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

—1 JOHN 5:14 NIV

I’ve had a long (and maybe complicated) relationship with prayer. I know it is real; I know it is powerful; I know God hears us. However, that doesn’t mean I have always gotten what I wanted. But the first time I remember God absolutely answering one of my prayers was when I was nine years old. In the spring of my third-grade year, I starred in our church’s children’s musical. Okay, to say I was “THE STAR” is a bit of an exaggeration because, while it was true in my heart, I’m pretty sure I was just one of the stars. Fine, one of the cast members.

I was Little Psalty. (For those who don’t know, Psalty is a singing hymnal who teaches children about God.) I strapped on this huge blue cardboard costume shaped like a hymnal and threw a baseball bat over my shoulder. I then walked through the crowd, singing the beautiful old hymn “Take My Life and Let It Be.”

Oh, did I mention I was a male character? So that’s a special part of the story.

When I got home from school the day of the musical, my mom was in her bed, all the lights off in her room, with a migraine. My life is filled with memories of migraines. When I was a kid, we took my mother to the hospital for them or left the house with my dad so she would have peace and quiet. That day when I saw my mom in bed, I knew immediately that it was bad.

She whispered to me in her headache voice that she was sorry, but she wasn’t going to be able to make it to the performance that night.

Well, my tender little third-grade heart was broken. I ran up the stairs to my room, threw my book bag on the floor, knelt down beside my bed, clasped my hands together, and prayed as hard as my heart knew how to pray.

Prayer is this amazing opportunity to connect directly with the greatest Being who has always been.

I don’t recall every word spoken during that fervent-kid prayer; I know I prayed God would heal Mama’s headache so she could come to the performance. I begged like only a nine-year-old knows how, with eyes squeezed tight and repeating the same few phrases over and over again.

Later that night at the church, with just minutes until the curtain went up, someone whispered my name. I was standing on the risers, ready to sing, and there was my mom, on the side of the stage, telling me she had made it.

I know. It’s like a Hallmark movie moment. And that’s when I learned that prayer is powerful.

Since then, I’ve had prayers answered just like that, in the exact way I thought, and I’ve had prayers seemingly never answered. I’ve had other situations I prayed about that went so differently that I wondered if God and I spoke the same language.

I think that’s where the courage comes in. Are you brave enough to pray and believe that God hears you and changes things? Are you brave enough to believe with your whole heart that God will do something miraculous? Are you brave enough to say the first words to Him after you’ve been silent for a while? Prayer isn’t about us, really. Prayer is this amazing opportunity to connect directly with the greatest Being who has always been. And it takes courage to know that for yourself.

So pray. God is absolutely real. And He is listening.

BE BRAVE: Pray today, whether it is a short sentence muttered under your breath or a few paragraphs written out in your journal. Talk to God. He is listening.