Chatting with God

For the past nine days families all over the world have gathered to pray, as part of the initiative from Thy Kingdom Come to create a global wave of prayer. That is now coming to an end, but it’s got me thinking about why thousands of people have committed to praying for eleven days. I guess the answer is simple – as Christians, we know that prayer is the most powerful tool that we have. Prayer changes lives! It makes a difference – because as we pray, our heavenly Father, creator of the universe, listens.

Jeremiah 29:12
“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.”

Ideas this month

Thy Kingdom Come
Signpost families to these amazing family podcasts from Thy Kingdom Come, which explore different ways families can pray together. Perhaps you could even use one in an all-age Sunday service.

Encourage prayer
As we’ve seen through the last nine days, there is something amazing about gathering corporately to pray. If you haven’t already done this as part of Thy Kingdom Come, could you arrange a focused week or day of prayer in your church, with different activities to involve children and families?

Making corporate prayer accessible for all!
Weekly prayer meetings often happen during the evening, which can be difficult for parents with bedtime routines and babysitting challenges. Could you hold a daytime prayer meeting, which might be more accessible for some parents to attend? This doesn’t have to only be open to parents of course. It can be a great way to develop intergenerational relationships and link parents with those who have retired, so that they can be a prayer support for each other.

Check out this article about the importance of praying grandparents (and that includes spiritual grandparents as well as biological ones).

Reflection

So why do we often find it hard to pray? All of us would have experienced answers to prayer – whether we’ve heard from God as we’ve asked for direction, experienced how he’s changed things that seemed hopeless, or experienced his love, joy, comfort or strength in our different seasons of life. But for many of us (even church leaders) prayer is not always something that comes naturally.

Twenty years ago, as a young adult I became a Christian. This coincided with a group of ladies from my church asking an older lady in our congregation to teach them to pray. This lady was the most incredible prayer warrior and her relationship with God was inspiring. For several weeks a group of us, some new to faith, some many years into their journey, gathered in her living room as she taught and modelled how to talk to God and how to listen to his voice.

One thing that was key in those early days of my faith journey was grasping that this was a two-way relationship. As I talked to God, he listened and as he spoke I started to recognise his voice. As I’ve thought about my prayer life recently and how I learned to pray, I feel so blessed by the way this lady invested in me. It’s got me thinking about how we can help parents and children in our churches to pray – to pray for each other, to pray together. Some parents may never have prayed out loud in front of anyone, some might not know how to start engaging their children in prayer. Why not check out some of the ideas above for simple ways you can help parents to build prayer into their everyday family life?

Blessings

Claire and the Kitchen Table Project team

Please send us your stories of inspiring faith at home – good and bad – we know it’s a rollercoaster! We’d love to include them in our emails and on the blog.

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