Be careful what you ask for..
Luke 11:5-13
Today's Gospel typically supports the idea of petitioning prayer - basically asking God to do stuff for us - and we have made a real speciality out of this sort of prayer; from Novenas to bidding prayers at Mass, we say to God ' Give us what we think we want and we'll be fine and very grateful.'
'Well, gee thanks,' God must think ' if only it was that easy.'
It would be different if we had the God's eye view of the world, Time, relationship and consequence but unfortunately only God has that omniscient outlook. Only He can juggle not only life's pathway for one person but the whole cat's cradle of everyone who has, who is and who will ever live. Loving and caring for us not equally but unique-ally - and we tell Him what's best!
Yet Jesus does tell us to pray and to be persistent in our prayers. Perhaps though prayer is meant to be more than a shopping list, perhaps instead of nagging God we need to be reassuring Him of our love and telling Him, in a constant renewal of our commitment, that we do trust Him not to feed us stones, that we will try to find a purpose in our worries and our trials and that we know we need Him, we need to feel Him in our daily lives.
So this is really the prayer: 'Here I am Father, with all my woes and troubles, trusting You, knowing You are with me, and giving myself, with childlike confidence, into your hands.'
For sometimes, and though it is horrible to admit it is true, we really don't see God shining in our lives until we find ourselves in the dark.
wordinthehand2008
Today's Gospel typically supports the idea of petitioning prayer - basically asking God to do stuff for us - and we have made a real speciality out of this sort of prayer; from Novenas to bidding prayers at Mass, we say to God ' Give us what we think we want and we'll be fine and very grateful.'
'Well, gee thanks,' God must think ' if only it was that easy.'
It would be different if we had the God's eye view of the world, Time, relationship and consequence but unfortunately only God has that omniscient outlook. Only He can juggle not only life's pathway for one person but the whole cat's cradle of everyone who has, who is and who will ever live. Loving and caring for us not equally but unique-ally - and we tell Him what's best!
Yet Jesus does tell us to pray and to be persistent in our prayers. Perhaps though prayer is meant to be more than a shopping list, perhaps instead of nagging God we need to be reassuring Him of our love and telling Him, in a constant renewal of our commitment, that we do trust Him not to feed us stones, that we will try to find a purpose in our worries and our trials and that we know we need Him, we need to feel Him in our daily lives.
So this is really the prayer: 'Here I am Father, with all my woes and troubles, trusting You, knowing You are with me, and giving myself, with childlike confidence, into your hands.'
For sometimes, and though it is horrible to admit it is true, we really don't see God shining in our lives until we find ourselves in the dark.
wordinthehand2008
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