The Utter Dependence of Prayer

To pray is to admit our helplessness

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

I stand outside my youngest’s bedroom, trying to not make a peep in hopes that I won’t distract her. My wife and I have been trying to get her to go down for bed for at least an hour now. Unfortunately this isn’t the first time.

Frustrated, exhausted, and questioning our sanity, we have come to the end of our ropes. Nothing we do works. These moments are now less about how we can change our youngest’s behavior and more about how we can simply get through bedtime without losing our minds. For us, we’re focused more on ensuring we don’t get angry as we navigate bedtime than whether or not our child listens at night. (Though we certainly still discipline when necessary.)

At this point, all we do is pray. We pray for that little girl to go to sleep, to yield to the feeling that her body is exhausted. We pray for our youngest to listen to what Mommy and Daddy say, not what she wants to do.¹ We pray for God to close her little eyes. We pray for patience, endurance, and trust in God’s plan. We pray, ultimately, because we are utterly helpless in the situation.

I’m sure you’ve had moments like this as well. We all have. Occasions in life that test our sanity and, more than anything else, reveal our hearts in prayer. What prayer uncovers is our utter dependence on God in all of life. This is why it’s important to pray during the good and hard times, because we have to remember we are dependent on the Lord always, not just the trying times.

Our prayers admit that we have limitations and are insufficient for the task. We need help; we can’t do it ourselves. If left to ourselves, we’d go insane. It’s when we neglect to pray that things go haywire, that life spins out of control and so does our wherewithal. We forget God; we act as if we don’t need His help. Oh, but we certainly do.

Scotty Smith, founding pastor of Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN, wrote in a prayer:

Dear heavenly Father, there are some lessons in this life of grace I seem to have a hard time remembering, or at least accepting. My limits and insufficiency are certainly two of them. The magnetic pull of the “cult of competency” is always lurking. Forgive me for not wanting to need the gospel, your Spirit, and community as much as you say I do. . . .I forsake the illusion of my competency and cast myself on you, the God who raises the dead—beginning with Jesus. Grant me grace to accept my limits and faith to trust you more.

“Forsake the illusion of my competency”—that is, in part, what we do in prayer. When we pray, we’re admitting our complete and utter lack of understanding; our severe limitations on fixing problems, big or small; our ineptitude of successfully just living life. To pray is to admit our helplessness. And, friend, that is perfectly okay. Not only is it okay, but it’s required as a Christian.

To not pray as a Christian is a foreign concept; it’s us telling the Lord we don’t need His help, His provision, His wisdom, His everything. But, of course, we need God all the time, and our prayers our simply an extension of that need. Our prayers are a consistent admission to God that we can’t live life ourselves, that we are not up to the task, that we need His unwavering grace each and every day.

Don’t be afraid to admit your help; don’t be timid to lay your weakness before the Lord. To pray is to recognize we need help—divine help. Prayer shows our utter dependence on the God of all comfort, and that’s a beautiful thing. Our dependence in prayer honors and glorified the Lord, so lean into your weakness.

1. I know this is my second post on bedtime with our youngest. This doesn’t mean she’s a horrible child. She is a wonderful gift from the Lord and we are grateful to God for her. For some reason, however, she enjoys being very strong-willed at bedtime.