A CHILDHOOD PRAYER

A CHILDHOOD PRAYER by Shawn Brix

"Jesus called out with a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.' When he had said this, he breathed his last."
— Luke 23:46
The first bedtime prayer I was taught by my parents was “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.” Perhaps you learned the same prayer as a child and have taught it to your children.

In Jesus’ day, little Jewish children were also taught a prayer.

Every night, in houses all across the countryside, little children would pray the words of Psalm 31:5: “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” As parents tucked little ones into bed, each child spoke those comforting words of trust in the Lord.

It’s likely that Jesus too was taught that prayer as a child. And some thirty years later it was the last thing he said before he took his final breath.

On the cross Jesus had reached the climax and the end of his entire mission. And as he took his dying breath, his final words were those of that prayer he learned at his mother’s knee:

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

That’s the type of trust we’re all called to. Jesus had taught earlier that “anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (Mark 10:15).

Jesus approached his Father both in life and in death with that simple childlike trust, praying always “Into your hands I commit my spirit.”

Are your days permeated by that kind of simple prayer?

PRAYER: Father in heaven, teach me to trust in you with childlike faith. In life and in death, I want to commit my body, mind, and spirit into your worthy hands, as I trust in you. Amen.