Prayer: Chatting With God Like a Best Friend by Wycliffe Bible TranslatorsEgzanp

Prayers Both Big and Small

It’s easy to forget about talking to God when things are happy in your life. You might get distracted and forget that everything good is a gift from God.

But when things start to get hard or scary, that’s often when you remember to stop and pray — because you want to ask God for help! When things get hard, it can also be easy to complain about what’s happening, like the Israelites did when they got tired of being in the desert and tired of eating the manna that God had given them for food (Numbers 11).

It’s not a bad thing to pray when things are hard. It’s a really good thing because that means you trust God and know He can help! The Bible even says that God wants you to come and talk to Him about your worries or fears (Philippians 4:6-7). In fact, when you’re feeling scared or sad, it can remind you how much you need God; you can’t do life well on your own without Him!

It’s good to pray about all things, whether big or small and whether life feels happy or hard. As you go about your day, you can “popcorn” pray about anything. That means chatting with God in short, quick prayers that can pop up anytime, like this:

• “Thanks, God, for those beautiful flowers in the front yard!”
• “God, please help me pass my math test today.”
• “My sibling is bothering me, but please help me to be loving and kind.”

You can also pray for really big things. In Matthew 21, Jesus tells His disciples that if they had faith and didn’t doubt, they could even ask God to throw a mountain into the sea and it would happen (v. 21). Isn’t that cool to think about? God is all-powerful, He can do anything and you can trust in Him.

But this doesn’t mean God is going to give you a new puppy just because you asked Him for one. God decides what you need. He knows everything, He loves you even more than anyone else does and He always knows what’s best for you. So God might decide not to answer your prayer the way that you ask Him to.

No matter what’s going on in your life, you can and should pray for things both big and small because God wants to hear from you about everything!

Think and Pray:

• Try popcorn prayer today. The more you do it, the easier it becomes! Just say quick prayers out loud or in your head, and see how easy it is to talk to God about anything.
• What’s something small you can talk to God about today? What about something big?