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We were enjoying extended family time between Christmas and New Year’s, watching a football game and playing with our grandchildren. Someone mentioned a prayer need as we often do; but I wasn’t expecting the words I heard next. My 5-year-old grandson, who had recently decided to give his heart to God, stated matter-of-factly that he prays about lots of things . . . but that “it doesn’t always work”.
I explained to him that prayer isn’t a magic formula and that God doesn’t always answer our prayers the way we want him to. Then I told him that we still have to choose to trust God anyway, even when he doesn’t do what we want him to do. My grandson has already begun to discover that real faith can be hard work.
As a firm believer in the doctrine of salvation through faith alone by God’s grace alone, I don’t mean that we have to work hard to be saved for eternity. But as someone who has walked for decades in a personal relationship with God, I know that trusting him on a regular basis through all of life’s ups and downs can be hard work . . . and that doubt can be part of what we experience as we try to understand God’s ways of doing things. Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us that God’s thoughts are not like our thoughts, and his ways are not like our ways. So sometimes we will struggle to understand what God is doing and to accept what his best for us looks like from our perspective.
I wish I could help my grandson avoid the questions that come with trusting God. I wish he could fully understand that his new decision to follow God is about a daily relationship and not the blessings or gifts he gets from God. He’s too young to fully grasp the truth of how God’s knowledge of what is best for us and His unfailing love for us work together for our good and His glory. My grandson still has a lot to learn about God’s character in order to have his hope and trust properly placed for a lifetime of following God. I can’t walk that journey for him.
But, ironically, I can do for him the one thing that started this whole conversation. I can pray for him. For as much of his life as I am blessed to be a part of before I leave for my heavenly home, I can pray for my grandson to grow in his love for God and his understanding of God and his trust of God. And I can also listen when he expresses what he’s thinking and help him to understand what I have learned from my own walk with God. I can’t imagine a greater privilege! “Grandchildren are the crown of the aged . . .“ (Proverbs 17:6a).
