PRAYER

PRAYER

Lk 18:1-8   The Judge and the Widow

 ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

Luke 11:5-13   The Neighbors

I tell you, even though he will not get up to provide for him because of his friendship, yet because of the man’s persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

These two readings are often used to illustrate how to pray, suggesting that if we persist in pestering God, he will eventually relent and give us what we want.  Looking at various translations of the parables, we get a wide variety of words like impudence, sheer audacity, pestering and nagging in place of persistence. None of those words are appropriate for prayer.  When Jesus explained to his disciples how to pray, he said, “When you pray, don’t babble.  God knows what you need before you ask.”  Those words should be the model on which our prayer is based.  Jesus also said, ‘Pray always’, which means to keep the line of communication with God open at all times wherever you are, whatever you are doing.

Some things we should ask ourselves –

Do I love God?

Do I trust God?

Do I believe in His promises as told to us by Jesus? 

If the answers are yes, yes and yes, then ask yourself one more. 

What’s all the begging for? 

We act as though God does not hear us, making it necessary to repeat our prayer over and over again.  This is based on our flawed understanding of what God’s love means.  If only we could rid ourselves of the notions that God can be bribed or cajoled into giving us what we want, and that if we nag enough, he will relent.   On the one hand, we say with apparent sincerity, that God is all love, but on the other hand we pray as though he is, either Santa Claus, a puppeteer or deaf.  We constantly forget that God is not us, prey to moods and unpredictable instead of steadfast and faithful.  “God knows what you need before you ask!”  God does not require anything from us except our heartfelt sincerity. God’s love is transcendent. God only wants what is best for us and if we would trust that, we would know what the peace that Christ offered us really means.

God is as immense as all the universes, and as close as your next heartbeat. 

Believe it.

Blessings,

Carol Lemelin OPA