Santa, Gifts, & Prayer

One cold evening in early December a visibly excited little boy came running into his father’s study with a tightly folded sheet of paper and an urgent question: “Daddy, does God really hear our prayers?”

“Well, of course He does!” replied the boy’s father, and with a gleam in his eye the boy turned and bolted from the room, dropping the folded paper in his haste. The father heard the door to his son’s bedroom sharply slam shut and wondered about the sudden inquiry with a mixture of pride and curiosity. He was proud that his son at such a young age was asking about spiritual matters, and yet curious as to why. Spotting the abandoned paper, the father unfolded it to discover that it was his son’s memory verse from Bible class for that week:

“And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
(1 John 5.15)

Glancing at a calendar on the wall, and the red-circled date near the bottom of that month, suddenly all the pieces of the mystery clicked into place. With a sigh he started down the hall to his son’s room, mentally preparing to interrupt the fervent prayer going on therein for Nerf guns, Legos, and the ability to fly.

When we pray, we must consider not only John’s assertion that God hears our prayers, but also the previous verse: “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us.” (5.14). As one writer put it, “Prayer is not a crying up the chimney of the universe to a celestial Santa Claus; it is an aligning of our wills with God’s sovereign will.” We are called to trust that our heavenly Father will not fail to provide all that we need (Matt. 6.25-33), giving us good gifts as a father to his children (Matt. 7.11). Jesus told His disciples that “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15.7). The real question, then, is not “What do I want from God?”, but “What does God want for me and from me?” Are we aligned with His will as revealed in scripture?

This year instead of making a list of what we want from Santa, let’s make a list of what God wants from us! Let’s set about aligning our will, our work, our worship, and our words with God. Make God the reason for every season of our lives.