Teach Us To Pray - Why Do We Not Always Get What We Ask For?

Once Jesus was in a certain place praying,

And when he had finished,

One of his disciples said,

Lord,

Teach us to pray,

Just as John taught his disciples.

He said to them,

Say this when you pray,

Father,

May your name be held holy,

Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins,

For we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us.

Do not put us to the test.

He also said to them,

Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him in the middle of the night to say,

My friend,

Lend me three loaves,

Because a friend of mine on his travels has just arrived at my house,

And I have nothing to offer him.

And the man answers from inside the house,

Do not bother me.

The door is bolted now,

And inside of the house my children and I are in bed.

I cannot get up to give it to you.

I tell you,

If a man does not get up and give it him for friendship's sake,

Persistence will be enough to make him get up and give his friend all he wants.

So I say to you,

Ask and it will be given to you.

Search and you will find.

Knock and the door will be opened to you,

For the one who asks always receives.

The one who searches always finds.

The one who knocks will always have the door opened to him.

What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread?

Or hand him a snake instead of a fish?

Or hand him a scorpion if he asked for an egg?

If you then who are evil know how to give your children what is good,

How much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you,

Lord Jesus Christ.

I wonder how many of us still truly believe in prayer.

Not this fuzzy pray,

I'll pray for you.

Love and light.

But in deep,

Connective prayer,

In time where we are in communion with God,

Where we talk with God,

And the part that most of us forget,

Myself,

Many times,

To listen.

I don't think prayer is necessarily a one-way communication.

It is talking and listening.

So in the Gospel reading today,

We see that one of Jesus's disciples,

I don't know why,

I get almost a little bit of a jealous feeling,

Please teach us to pray.

Just as John taught his disciples,

Why does John teach his people to pray?

And you don't.

Please teach us how to pray.

Because they see,

They master,

Do it.

They see Jesus is praying.

So why doesn't he share that with us?

Jesus shares this with them.

Such a beautiful,

Beautiful thing,

Which is the Our Father.

Say this when you pray.

And of course,

Jesus taught his disciples many,

Many different things,

And how to pray in different ways,

And how to ask,

And how to praise.

But then Jesus tells them this story.

No surprise there.

That is,

The way that Jesus taught was in parables,

In stories,

And this isn't necessarily a classical parable.

Jesus gives an example of the friend needing help,

And the neighbor,

The friend being asleep already,

Door bolted.

And there's a little bit of an interesting thing there.

You know,

Society would tell us,

Firstly,

Don't go and bother people in the middle of the night,

Unless it is an emergency.

But here,

The emergency is hospitality.

How amazing is that?

That Jesus says it is okay to go and ask in the times that you need,

Not necessarily that your house is burning down,

Not necessarily the time of immense crisis,

Or maybe crisis to Jesus is something that means a lot different to what we think it is.

I have somebody in need with me.

I have a friend who just arrived,

And I don't have food to give them.

It is okay to go and ask.

And then,

Even more out of synchronization with our society,

Especially today,

When the person says,

I'm already in bed,

My children are already in bed,

The house is locked up already,

It is okay to nag.

Persistence will be enough to make him get up and give his friend all he wants.

Now,

If we see this in context of,

Teach us to pray,

Something very interesting comes to light.

And we talk a lot about,

I pray and pray and pray,

And God doesn't give me what I want.

Two thoughts coming up there.

First,

Is here Jesus says that sometimes you will not get immediately what you ask for.

Isn't that interesting?

Maybe it is not the time yet to get what we want.

Maybe God has a different plan at that moment.

Jesus says to persist in prayer.

Believe that we will get it.

Persist in prayer.

I don't think it is good enough for us to stand up and in the times when we need to then just put up a prayer.

Yes,

I know in times of strife and in times of deep,

Deep need,

We send up these quick little prayers to God and that is okay.

But persist in prayer.

Something interesting also,

Jesus took an example of going to a friend,

Not necessarily the neighbour,

A friend.

How can we expect God to get up in the middle of the night and help us if we are not friends with God?

If we pass by God as an acquaintance,

Maybe hello,

Wave and smile and nod.

If we don't have an active,

Live relationship with God,

How dare we,

If I may use that strong idea,

But how dare we then want to ask God for things in our times of need when God isn't our friend?

If we don't have this relationship with God that is alive,

That we nurture,

COVID has taught us some that friendships are to be nurtured.

When it was taken away from us,

The ability to get together and to be with our friends,

That was a very,

Very,

Very,

Very special form of hell,

In my mind.

And yes,

I know that many of us who are introverts loved it,

But this total isolation and not being able to be with those that we care for and those that we love was extremely challenging.

So make God your friend.

God wants to be your friend.

He's always ready.

He's always there,

Always connecting.

I saw an image one day of Jesus going to sit down by a restaurant table and waiting the whole day for a person.

And here,

Eight at night,

This person shows up and says,

Well,

I only have five minutes for you,

My quick prayer time,

And then I need to go again because my life is important.

And then we wonder why we struggle when we need.

And God is love.

God doesn't necessarily withhold answering our prayers because we have been neglecting God.

No,

I don't think that way.

Well,

I don't think it is that way.

But when we ask for things,

I truly believe that it is much easier when we are in the presence of God often,

Which is always,

If we are aware of that and when we nourish that and honor that,

That our prayers will be answered easier.

Yet some of us have a very beautiful relationship with God.

We spend time every day praying.

We spend time every day listening.

And our prayers are not all answered.

Earlier on,

I said there are two thoughts that come up and this is the one.

I for once remembered not to go off on a tangent and never end the one section and go into the next,

Which is a miracle in own right.

The other thing is,

What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread?

And we see that God gives us good.

The Heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

But I had another thought on this idea.

Who would hand me a child,

A scorpion,

If he asks for an egg?

A child.

We are all children of God.

And the thought that struck me here is that sometimes children don't necessarily know what they are asking for.

Sometimes children in their unknowing,

In their ignorance,

Ask for the scorpion.

Sometimes children ask for the snake.

They think it is a bread.

They think it is an egg.

They think it is a fish.

And yet,

As parents,

We sometimes know we can't give our children matches to play with.

Have we ever thought about this?

That maybe the no from God isn't because we are bad.

Maybe the no from God isn't because we don't pray enough.

Maybe the no from God is because it is going to harm us.

Maybe there is a reason why some prayers should not be answered.

Maybe we don't need to learn that lesson.

Maybe we don't need to burn.

Maybe we don't need to be stung or be bitten.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Let us keep that in mind.

Let us keep in mind that prayer is a beautiful thing.

It is such a powerful,

Powerful thing in whatever way we do it.

If we kneel,

If we pray the rosary,

If we just sit.

If we are working and we are talking with God,

Prayer is powerful.

If we don't call God by the names that the Christians do,

Prayer is still powerful.

So let us remember that.

Let us pray always.

And let us look at the content of our prayer.

And if the prayers are not heard,

We don't throw up our hands and say,

Oh God hates me.

No,

No.

We say,

Thank you God that you love me.

Teach me your will.

So that my prayers are in alignment with what is best for you.

For me,

Your will and every single being.

Amen.