Bringing Our Desires to God the Father
As a child of God, we are given certain privileges that accompany that title. What desires do you have that you can bring to God?
I was tucking my then four-year-old daughter, Selah, into bed one night when she looked at me with her big blue eyes and proclaimed, “Mom, I really want to be a flower girl!” I began to ask her more about this request while simultaneously cataloging our friends and family to ascertain if there was any way she might get her wish. There was not a single person I could think of in our lives who was on the verge of marriage or even engagement and would have any reason to ask Selah.
I was at a loss for what to say to this precocious girl, so I fell back on my pastor go-to and found myself saying, “Well, why don’t you pray about it?” Right there in that moment, she prayed with sincerity I’ve rarely heard. She closed her eyes, folded her hands, and began to pray, “Jesus, would you please make me a flower girl? I will do a good job throwing the petals, and it is what I want so, so much.”
As I lay in bed that night, I couldn’t shake the flower girl conversation. It wasn’t so much the possibility of setting my child up for the disappointment that was rolling through my mind, but rather her childlike ability to name so clearly and with such confidence what she wanted.
She wanted and she asked and she believed.
Bring Your Desires to God
I wondered, when was the last time that I lived with so much freedom and boldness? When was the last time I named (without disclaimer or preface) what I wanted? Let me ask you the same question—when was the last time you named (without disclaimer or preface) what you wanted?
Throughout the Gospels we find Jesus asking a lot of questions. To the crowds and to individuals, we find He poses a total of 307 questions, and on more than one occasion, He simply asks, “What do you want?” He famously asks Blind Bartimeus this question when the answer is obvious—Bartimeus wants to see. Jesus asks a paralyzed man lying beside the pool of Bethesda if he wants to be healed, when again, the answer is a clear-cut and resounding yes.
So why does He even ask when the answer is so obvious? As I lay there that night, I was frightened at the realization that I had long ago abandoned the practice of naming what I wanted. And beyond this realization was the shocking truth that if Jesus stood in front of me and asked, “What do you want?” I would have no answer.
My story is different from yours, but I would guess that at the core, we have similar reasons why we abdicate naming our wants. Rejection. Embarrassment. Disappointment. To put it in Scriptural terms, our hope has been deferred one too many times, and we aren’t sure how to get it back.
So we build walls of protection around our hearts, refuse to name what we actually want, and settle for assessing situations and determining the requests that will be appropriate for the current scenario or crowd.
Finding Abba
Jesus says in John 14:9, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!”
Abba, the Hebrew name for Father, was often on the lips of Jesus. When the disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, He began by explaining that they should start their prayers addressing God as their Father. This would have been mind-blowing for good Jewish boys, and it was blasphemous for religious leaders. In a culture where the name of God was not uttered for fear of taking His name in vain, the idea that God could be referred to in such a casual and relational term no doubt caused friction in the minds of those who grew up under strict rules but were now being drawn to this man of grace.
Discovering God as Father does not mean every whim and desire is automatically yours; it’s a life-changing revelation that causes the frivolous wants to pale in comparison to the joy and security that come with being His. You, my friend, are not a slave or simply a servant. You are a child, a daughter, and when this identity takes root, it has the power to change everything.
Answered Prayers
This would be a great segue to tell you that Selah learned the hard but beautiful lesson that every prayer does not get a yes. The truth is that a loving Father heard her sweet little prayer, and two weeks later, I found a young woman who attends our church in my office, asking if Selah could be the flower girl in her wedding!
Reflection:
- Take some time today to think about your desires and name them in prayer. Don’t hold back or downsize your desires today as you pray but be honest with God about your deepest dreams.
- Do you ever struggle to remember that you are a daughter of God? Think through what might be holding you back from embracing that title to its fullest today.
Did you enjoy today’s post? Check out the book that inspired it He Knows Your Name: How 7 Nameless Women of the Bible Reveal Christ’s Love for You by Paige Allen. In it, Paige invites you to take a second look at the moments when seven unnamed women came face-to-face with Jesus in the Bible to find your confidence in Christ’s love for you.
Paige Allen (paigeallen.net) is an executive pastor at Church on the Rock in Lubbock, Texas, a vibrant and diverse multisite congregation. There, she pastors the staff and gives oversight to global missions, the New Legacy Home for Women, and Bloom Women’s Ministry. Paige cohosts the podcast Bloom Talks and travels internationally to speak and teach. She and her husband, Josh, have two daughters and live in Lubbock.
To learn more about God’s identity and our identity in Christ, pick up Paige’s book He Knows Your Name: How 7 Nameless Women of the Bible Reveal Christ’s Love for You.
