When you pray, are you confident that God is listening? And, oh my, what if God is?
In this Sunday’s reading from the Book of Genesis, Abraham
is confronted with a moral dilemma:
should he challenge God, interceding for the inhabitants of the city of Sodom whom God
plans to destroy? Entering into
conversation with God, Abraham fights for justice, seeking evidence of God’s
love in the face of sin. In this first
book of the Bible, the people of Israel are still tentatively learning who God
is, learning to have trust and confidence in God. Abraham’s prayer of petition is effective
(God will ultimately send the righteous away before he acts), but the most
important discovery that Abraham makes is that God’s love has no limits – Abraham thus expands
his capacity to trust God. And he trusts
entirely. Psalm 138 confirms the ongoing
grace that is God’s care and love for the world: When I
called, you answered me…
Persistence and confidence are key elements of this week’s
Gospel reading from Luke as well.
Following his introduction of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus tells the story
of a man who is in need of bread to feed a friend recently arrived from a
journey. He asks another friend, only to
meet with refusal: Do not bother me… But the first man will not leave, and ultimately,
Jesus says, he will get up to give him
whatever he needs because of his persistence. Note that Jesus is not saying the petitionee
will give the man whatever he wants,
just as God does not necessarily answer our prayers with what we want. Prayer, after all, is an interaction, not a
fast-food order. It is meant to expand
our hearts, to unfold them, so that we can open ourselves to God, letting go of
control, surrendering, entering into God’s plan rather than holding closely to
our own. And the more we come before God
in prayer, the more we come to know God’s way, God’s plan, what God is
unfolding in our lives. We need to pray,
to pray always… and to have faith in the power of God (Colossians) who raised Jesus from the dead. He
can bring us to life also, if only we
think to ask, and open our hearts to the surprising ways God works in our lives.
Seek and you will
find. Seek, and you shall find God. Are you ready for that?
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