Jul 27 Sun
Does God answer our prayers?
One of Jesus’ disciples “prayed,” that is, “asked” how to pray, and Jesus answered him.
The content of our prayer, Christ says, should be to honor God, adjust ourselves to his plan, ask for our daily needs, beg forgiveness for our sins, and request not to be overcome when tested.
The manner of our prayer should be persistent, trusting, and with the humility of a son talking to his Father.
Persistence is the point of the parable of the three loaves, and a feature of the way Abraham petitioned God to spare Sodom for the sake of the innocent.
Does God answer our prayers? Everyone who prays has the experience of prayers that seem not to be answered or are still unanswered.
Our Father wants to give us what we truly need, but He wants us to ask for it.
God may delay granting it until we realize how much we need him.
God cannot give us what is bad for us, for He desires our well-being, our life. God wants us to ask for what He wants to give us. If we enter into the desire of his Spirit, we shall be heard.” As St. Augustine puts it, “God wills that our desire should be exercised in prayer, that we may be able to receive what He is prepared to give.”
What does God want to give us most of all?
Think, “Why did God make me?” The answer is “God made me to KNOW Him, to LOVE Him, and to SERVE Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.”
Thus, knowing God as our Father is the first gift we need. That means we must know our faith well, through solid formation, including God’s Word and good books.
To love God, we must both know him and experience his love.
The most fundamental ways we love God are:
- Participation in the liturgy and receptions of the Sacraments,
- Dialogue with God in prayer,
- Effort to do good and avoid evil according to God’s law,
- Service to our neighbor.
To serve God, we must become transformed according to the image of Christ, the perfect man. That means we change, and change is not easy.
This change is not a one-moment event; rather, it is a lifelong process.
St. Josemaria wrote, “A forge is a place where metal is heated red hot and then pounded into shape with hammer blows."
The Bible often uses the image of a crucible, where pure gold is separated from its impurities.
Job said life on earth is warfare, and St. Paul advised to put on our spiritual armor to fight it. This fight is primarily against oneself, the new man against the old.
Our Lord himself said that if anyone wants to come after him, he must take up his cross daily.
Thus, knowing, loving, and serving God is like going on a diet or exercise plan, not for two months to lose thirty pounds and to gain a flat stomach, but for life to lose all our vices and to gain the attitude and natural and supernatural virtues of Christ.