Foster the FamilySample

Day Seven

An Act of Surrender

Scripture: Isaiah 55:8; Romans 8:26-27; Romans 11:34

Does anyone else struggle through guilty prayers that you don’t feel like you should pray? For kids to stay (or leave), for parents to fail, for a family not to show up? Does anyone else eke out prayers that a part of you doesn’t even really mean? For visits to go well, for parents to stay clean, for workers to be blessed? Is anyone else so confounded by your child’s needs or case that you’re not even sure what to ask for? Which services, which diagnosis, which path?

This foster care life—and the emotions that accompany it— is so confusing that it can turn our prayer life inside out.

But if there’s one benefit to being completely out of control of my family’s fate, it’s that it’s driven me to my knees in soul-surrendered prayer. When something challenging comes up, I stop and realize there is nothing that I can do, and remember: I have direct access to the One who can do anything. I don’t carry the illusion of control that I once did, and it has served my soul—and my prayer life—well to be reminded of this daily.

What I’ve learned, as I’ve imperfectly stumbled through praying for my foster children, is that the actual content of my prayers is secondary. Prayer isn’t an incantation, it’s not a cryptic recitation of the perfect words. A prayer is an act of surrender. Prayer is saying to God—using His own words back to Him, groaning my heart out, or unloading childlike and imperfect pleas—that I believe who He says He is. I believe He is in control. I believe He is good.

Countless times throughout this foster care journey I’ve felt so weak that words have eluded me completely. In times like this, I’ve relied on the Spirit to communicate for me (Romans 8:26-27).

If you feel limited by confusion or anxiety or weakness and can’t even shape the language of your prayers, then offer your heart’s groan as a plea. What a sacred and surrendered prayer you offer by simply bringing your burden to God without dictating what you think He should do with it.

Spend time crying out to God, either with words or groans, knowing that His Spirit is interceding for you in all you cannot say.