"A Praying Life" (chapter 19)

A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

By Paul E. Miller

Part 4: Living in Your Father’s Story

“Watching a Story Unfold” - Chapter 19

Our Prayers Shape Us

• God wants to do something bigger than simply answer our prayers.
• The act of praying draws God into our lives and begins to change us.
• Our prayers are not isolated from the larger story that God is weaving in our lives.
• The act of praying alerts us and shapes our decisions.
• Praying to not love the world, informs our purchase decisions.
• Our prayers for others begin to shape our hearts – we begin to see the same things in ourselves.
• Perhaps God is not answering our prayers because he wants to expose something in us.
• Our prayers don’t exist in a world of their own. We are in dialogue with a personal, divine Spirit who wants to shape us as much as he wants to hear us.
• Most of us isolate prayer from the rest of what God is doing in our lives, but God doesn’t work that way.

Parenting and Prayer

• Prayer is not discussed enough in the context of Christian parenting.
• We believe that if we have the right biblical principles and apply them consistently, our kids will turn out right. But this doesn’t always happen.
• Until we become convinced we can’t change our child’s heart on our own, we will not take prayer seriously.
• Our goal is not to shape the child in our likeness and conform his/her will to our own. Our goal is to shape the child in Christ’s likeness and bend their will to God’s. This can’t happen without personal repentance and prayer.
• In prayer for our own children’s self-willed behavior, we will more readily see our own selfishness.
• In coming up against our child’s self-will, we are tempted to be controlling/domineering or to be passive. Both extremes are wrong.

Despair: I don’t have the power.Out of control.	Good Asking: God has the power.God in control.	Demanding: I have the power.In control
Focus: How the other person can’t change.	Focus: On God, I live in his presence with my disappointment. I begin with my own need to change.	Focus: How the other person needs to change.
Role of Prayer: None. I’ve given up.	Role of Prayer: Central. I pray to a personal God, so I am simultaneously asking and surrendering.	Role of Prayer: Another weapon in my battle.

Field Hockey and Faith

• One word should dominate our prayers for our children and for other people: Faith.
• Our desire should be for our child or other person to be living their lives abiding in God, drawing daily energy and meaning from Him and not from circumstances, people, or things.
• We shouldn’t pray for all obstacles and struggles to be immediately removed if our ultimate desire is for our children to learn faith.
• Are our goals for our children tied to accomplishments or to their growth in faith?
• Keeping our prayers anchored to the larger story of what God is doing in our lives and the people around us will make our prayers better and will make our hearts better.