So, \u201cAsk and it will be given to you; seek and you will\nfind; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone that asks will receive.\u201d That sounds too good to be true, doesn\u2019t it?\nAnd perhaps some of you may even be skeptical from your own previous\nexperience. But Jesus always speaks the\ntruth. So, how do we resolve our\nexperience with Jesus words? How can we\nbe sure our prayers will be answered in the future? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You know, I recently led a Bible Study called \u201cLectio\nPrayer\u201d. It was based on an age-old\npractice called \u201cLectio Divina\u201d. This is\na Latin term for prayerful reading of the holy scriptures. The idea is that our prayer life is enhanced\nby using Lectio Divina. You see, the\nauthor of that study made this interesting point. He said that all prayer is initiated by God. That\u2019s right, all prayer is initiated by God! So, that means we have to listen to God first\nto engage in prayer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you think about it, we should all approach our prayer\nrelationship with God like we approach a friendship. A true friend listens to what we have to say;\nbut to be a true friend, we have to listen to them as well. And God\u2019s agenda for us is always more\nperfect than anything we might conjure up for ourselves. So, we should be open above all to what God\nhas to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God sincerely wants to help us with our needs. But there is a difference between our needs\nand our wants. Take a lesson from Queen\nEsther in our first reading. She is not\npraying for her wants, is she? Rather,\nshe is sincerely concerned and troubled by the terrible cunning and guile of\nthe King\u2019s assistant, who has tricked the King into a decree to kill all of the\nJews. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, opening your prayer with a long list of requests and\ncomplaints doesn\u2019t seem like the way to talk to a friend; and it is definitely\nnot the way to talk to God. We should\nstart our prayer humbly asking God to talk to us and be prepared to listen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now I am sure many of you recognize that God speaks to us in\nvery subtle, gentle, and mysterious ways. \nSo, it may be easy to miss how God is calling you to pray. But God certainly does speak to us through\nthe scriptures, the word of God. When we\nread scriptures, something usually leaps out at us too. That is often God\u2019s way of asking us to\nreflect more on it. It may hold the key\nto our path forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And God speaks to us in those nagging feelings we have that\nsomething is wrong in our lives or the lives of our loved ones. Those feelings are God calling you to reflect\nand change something. They are moments\nwhich are calling out for you to get into a quiet, undisturbed environment, and\nhumbly open yourself up to what God has to say. \nAfter you have listened to God, then it is time to share your concerns\nand feelings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But be careful of what you ask for. We can all take a lesson from Queen Esther. As I said before, she was not praying for her\nwants; but rather for an urgent need. And\nEsther was asking for help- not intervention. \nShe wants God to put the right words in her mouth to persuade her\nhusband. Esther is concerned about a\ntrue need- and is only asking for the grace to act effectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s what we should ask for. Ask for strength, for the right words, for\nthe wisdom to deal with the need that we have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are many times that good people have been soured by\nwhat appears to be a rejection by God of their prayer- a sick friend or relative\ndoes not pull through; the job you sought did not come through; some immanent\nnatural disaster like a hurricane sweeps over us despite our prayers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, God can work miracles; but usually God works in\nnatural ways. And we are part of that\nsolution. God works through us, as he\nused Esther to persuade the King. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes God\u2019s wisdom is mysterious and seems like\nout-of-the-box thinking. Is that really\nso surprising? God is so far beyond us\nthat we cannot possibly see his plan or know his ways. We need to trust God and hope that our\nprayers will be answered for our ultimate good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps it was that friend or relative\u2019s time; perhaps\nthere\u2019s a better job for you; perhaps the natural disaster will put you in a\nplace that\u2019s far better in the eyes of God. \nPerhaps God wants to close one door and open another in your life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are God\u2019s children now. \nWe always have the best interests in mind for our children when they ask\nfor something, don\u2019t we? And sometimes\nthey ask for something and the best answer is \u201cno\u201d or \u201cnot right now\u201d. God does the same with us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So \u201cask\u201d but ask with all humility and sincerity, \u201cAnd it\nwill be given to you\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday of First Week of Lent Es C: 12, 14-16, 23-25; Mt 7: 7-12 Dc. Larry Brockman So, \u201cAsk and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone that asks will receive.\u201d That sounds too good to be true, doesn\u2019t it? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[564,563],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1094,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions\/1094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}