“We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.” C.S. Lewis
This week, we’re continuing to look at the power of prayer for your children. In my experience, the best place to start in prayer is stillness and the peace and joy of presence with God.
Stillness
For a mom, the concept of stillness can seem laughable. I no longer have little ones around me all day, but I do remember the time when even going to the bathroom often didn’t give me a moment of peace. Of course early morning and late night, when the kids were sleeping, were quiet. But those were often not ideal times for me to spend time in stillness with the Lord, just because I felt the intense need for sleep. Opportunities to rest were rare, and I knew I needed to take advantage of them when they came.
So what is a busy and fatigued mother to do? What is stillness with God, and how likely is a mom of young children is ever to find it?
Stillness certainly can be an extended quiet time of solitude, eliminating noise and distractions and just sitting still in God’s presence. Whenever you’re able to do this, do it! It can be tremendously beneficial, allowing us to hear God and to set aside our agenda and then speak to him out of the overflow of our hearts. Such a time of stillness can humble us as we acknowledge that our to-do list can wait, and the world will keep spinning while we stop planning and doing.
I love spending time in stillness with God because it keeps me from turning my time with him into a task to be accomplished. Because of my temperament, which leads me to value and emphasize productivity and efficiency, my quiet time with the Lord can become an agenda item kind of like grocery shopping or paying bills, something I plow through and then check off. I need a reminder that, more than praying through a list of requests or reading a set amount of Scripture, I just need to be with him, be genuine with him, enjoy his presence, and listen.
For a devoted time of stillness like this, setting a timer can be helpful. It keeps me from worrying about how much time is passing. It lets me just let go and truly focus on the presence of God. Twelve minutes seems to work really well for me, though sometimes it's twenty (and others, it's three)!
If carving out time for extended stillness with God is a challenge for you, I recommend putting it on your calendar formally at least quarterly and asking for support in this. I hope your spouse, parent, or a friend can do something fun for an hour or two with your children while you find a beautiful spot to be with God.
On a daily basis however, know that even taking just one minute to direct your brain to settle down and home in on the presence of God while you take three slow, deep, breaths – even this can do a lot to bring stillness.
Yielding
Once you have been still with the Lord, it’s helpful to focus on yielding. Otherwise, we often pray, but without seeking God and aiming to discern his will and be directed by him in prayer. With prayer like this, we are not seeking to join the work he is doing but to tell him how we want him to work. We end up with limited vision for our situation and little expectation of power. And frankly, our imagination just falls so short of what God is able and willing to do (Ephesians 3:20-21)! We are far better off asking him to bring us on board with what he is doing.
I recommend following up a time of stillness by acknowledging God in your circumstances and yielding to his will. A great place to start is just expressing your gratitude to him for what he’s done in your life recently and your adoration of who he is. The enemy is constantly telling us God is not good. We need the refreshment that comes from returning to and dwelling on what is true – God is so good. He is not only worthy of directing us, but he is faithful to direct us in goodness and love.
Petition and Intercession
Now, you are in a great place to lift up your requests to God. Open your heart to him and pour out the cares that are weighing heavy on you.
Ask him to be present in your children’s current struggles. Whether it’s difficult situations, challenges with friends or family members, character issues, health concerns, or anything else, when you bring those to God, you are submitting them to the only one who truly sees the situation fully and clearly, loves your children perfectly and completely, and has all the power needed to accomplish good in every situation.
Do you see the beautiful cycle happening when we pray? We aim to live in step with the Spirit. When we do so, God is forming our hearts, including our deepest desires. In intercession and petition, we bring these holy desires back to him. He responds to our petitions, which then increases our faith and intimacy.
What a beautiful partnership! He directs our hearts and forms right desires in us, and we bring those desires back to him, joining him as partners in his kingdom work.
What a joy for parents! As we pray, we are submitted to what he is accomplishing in the situation we are lifting up, and we can trust that the Holy Spirit is directing our prayers and that Christ himself is interceding for us. We can be at peace with his will and eagerly waiting for him to show himself strong in it, be glorified in it, and bring about what is good in it.
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is *perfect toward him. 2 Chronicles 16:9
*loyal, whole, complete, peaceful
If you would be blessed by a week of encouragement in praying for your children, I invite you to join Savvy's free program - 7 Days to Becoming a Prayerful Parent. It's designed to inspire and equip you in developing a practice of praying for your children regularly. Click the button below to check it out!
Comments