In today’s gospel, Jesus says to the disciples: Ask, you will receive, seek, you will find and knock and the door will be opened to you. Last week in the readings Jesus recommended us to make time for God, even though we have our busy lives, we should make time for God. Time to listen to God and time to talk to God. As believers, our service, job and commitment should not be an excuse to pay attention to God who speaks to us.
Today Jesus teaches us how we have to pray, what we have to say and what we have to ask for. Most of the time people ask questions about prayers . What kind of prayers (books, rosary, adoration ….) they should do? How can I learn to pray better? I am not very good at praying, compared to some “prayer warriors” that I know. Or how long they have to pray? Or how they can improve their prayers? What do we have to say in prayer? The technique to pray?
I think in today’s gospel, Jesus tries to respond to all these questions we ask about prayer. When one of the disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, they wanted to learn to pray and to deepen their relationship with God. The first requirement for real prayer is to want to pray….. the desire to pray. Teach us to pray.
In response, Jesus told them to pray the our Father or Lord’s prayer. Now, reflecting about Christian prayer, there are some messages we can learn. First of all, in telling the disciples to pray the Our Father, Jesus recommends them to keep the prayer simple and meaningful. The Lord’s Prayer is the simplest prayer with very few words. No philosophy, or big words. Our prayer should be simple. Never worry about what to say. Just say what is in your heart. Because when you pray from your heart, you express to God your gratitude and all you need: You ask for daily bread, for forgiveness and mercy. And You also ask God to be with you as you face the challenges. Secondly, Jesus teaches the disciples to talk to God as his children and to call God our Father. And He says: when you pray, say: Our Father.
We see immediately that prayer, according to Jesus, prayer is a dialogue between Father and son based on a relationship of love and intimacy. Prayer is a family affair. Thirdly, Jesus teaches us to trust God in prayer. In the relationship between Father and son, it should be trust. We trust that God answers our prayers, the answer may not be what we expected. But God knows what we really need. God knows what is the best for us. Whatever God gives us, in one way or another, will lead to good. If he gives us a cross he will give us the strength to carry it, we need to have the “eyes of faith” that our Father cares, hears, and answers.
That is why Jesus says: ask, you will receive, seek, you will find and knock the door will be opened to you. In praying, we should trust God, our Father. We should trust even though we don’t receive what we ask for or what we expect. Even though we get the impression that our prayers are not listened to, we must be persistent. We must not lose hope. Because God knows what we really need. God knows what is best for us. Whatever God gives us, in one way or another, will lead to good. If he gives us a cross he will give us the strength to carry it.
We need to have the “eyes of faith” that our Father cares, hears, and answers. God will always answer our prayer, his answer may not be what we expected. If we ask for a fish he will not give us a snake, but if we are foolish enough to ask for a scorpion he may well give us an egg. If he gives us a cross he will give us the strength to carry it. Eyes of faith. whatever God gives, in one way or another, will ultimately lead to good. So prayer is an activity that flows out of a relationship.
We do not learn how to pray better, we become better women and men of prayer when our relationship with God becomes more intimate like that of father and child. If you want to improve your prayer, focus on improving your personal relationship with God, our Father. Lord’s prayer is the model, the inspiration of our prayers. That means our prayers should reflect the spirit of the Our Father, simple, meaningful, from the heart and with perseverance.
Each time we pray we need to examine if our prayer reflects the spirit of the Lord’s prayer or if it is part of God’s plan. Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For that we need to ask God to give us eyes of faith.
~Fr. Kalombo
