Praying and Baking Cookies

God's plan, for some mysterious reason, includes our prayers. I picture it this way: When children are small, they love to help their mother bake cookies. Mom certainly doesn’t need their help, and their efforts certainly don't improve mom’s baking skills. When the father comes home, the children offer him cookies squealing, "Daddy, look what I made!" Then the mother would boast of their wonderful baking skills (even though the cookies didn’t turn out very good!).Truth is, she just loved having them alongside her as her little helpers. She treasured those moments together when they learned from her.

I believe it's the same way with God. He doesn't need our help but He loves our company, and He loves teaching us, especially about Himself. Prayer is one way He does this.

Let's look at this analogy even more closely. Who benefited greatest from the baking lesson? Certainly not the father as the cookies still weren’t very good. And certainly not the mother as she ended up with more mess to clean up. Yes, you've caught on. The beneficiaries were in fact the children. The experience increased their overall aptitude and was rewarding.

Similarly, my prayers are my participation in “baking God’s cookies.” God does not need me to pray since He knows the ingredients and the recipe for His cookies better than anyone, but He loves my participation in His plan, and is rewarding me for it with eternal life. I benefit most for cooperating with God. I am the one who is blessed, and better still, I am changed (2 Corinthians 3:18). Alas, I am so often blinded to this truth, convinced that what I do is more important than what I pray.

Prayer is a privilege in which God invites us to be part of the outworking of His plan. After all, God's plan is to conform us to His image, and one of His greatest tools to implement that is prayer. So, I say "Let's pray!" “Let’s make some cookies!” Let's enjoy being God’s children by joining Him in prayer.

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