Thank you God for this food, thank you for the boys at school and daddy at work. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Every day my youngest likes to pray for breakfast. In fact, he is insistent about prayer and is a little OCD about the process.

Everyone must bow their heads and close their eyes.
Everyone must be present at the table.
We MUST end the prayer with “In Jesus name, Amen.”

Although it is so adorable and sweet, I am learning a lot from listening to the prayers of my children. They pray for the most simple of things. Things like no rain or to win the basketball game. We’ve had lots of discussions about answered prayers. Sometimes things don’t turn out the way they want. I will tell you this, they never accuse God of not caring. In fact, they have so much hope (Biblical hope) they do not doubt God will answer them.

I’ve been ashamed at my lack of true hope when it comes to my prayers. I make lists. I beg God to intercede and sometimes I walk away feeling like I met with Santa Claus. Maybe He will answer, maybe he won’t. The more I read and study prayer the more I realize that is NOT how prayer or hope works!

In fact, prayer is an expectation that God will work and hope is the confidence in knowing He will as well. Both go hand in hand. Simply put, we cannot have a powerful prayer life without hope.

If we do not believe God will answer and have confidence in His ability (and kindness) to answer our prayers – what is the point? Have you asked yourself these questions:

What is the point of prayer?

Is God even listening?
Why do I still struggle with _____?
Where do I even start when it comes to prayer?

If you have, I want to encourage you with this first step: have hope in prayer. That’s it. Believe God will answer. Make the choice to trust His word and keep coming to Him with your requests. I cannot even begin to tell you why God might feel silent or why you are still struggling. I can tell you this: God loves you. And sometimes suffering is part of this sin-cursed world. Prayer is not a secret magical wand; but a way to first and foremost to connect to God.

Keep prayer a part of your life and keep hope a part of your prayers. To help you do this I created this 7 Days to Hope challenge. It is available NOW! Sign up here and join me!