Understanding God as a loving, heavenly parent is so important in our attitude and approach, for how we picture God will influence what we expect of our Creator in prayer. A schoolboy was asked what he thought God was like. He replied that, as far as he could make out, God was “the sort of person who is always snooping round to see if people are enjoying themselves and then trying to stop it!”

If we, like this schoolboy, picture God as a Cosmic Kill-joy, then we will not go to God very often in prayer. Then there are those who picture God at the other extreme, as a Colossal Vending Machine, whose sole purpose is to give us what we want. Just pop in a prayer and out comes our heart’s desire. A problem arises, however, when prayer does not work out quite so simply, when the expected results are not produced. Then, in disappointment and anger, we kick and scream at our Cosmic Vending Machine for swallowing our prayer.

Jesus likens God to neither of these extremes. To Him, God is like a Good Parent who will give us in prayer what is good for us, not always what we want.

Tags: God, prayer