28 July 2019 - how to pray

Today's Readings

(Audio)

He said to them, "When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,

Nothing about prayer makes sense unless we first know to whom we pray. He is the Father of Jesus and our Father. He is the one to whom the Spirit makes us cry, "Abba, Father!" The Spirit of adoption we receive is adoption as his children.

See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord,
though I am but dust and ashes!

In Jesus we are more the dust and ashes. We are the righteousness of God in Christ (see Second Corinthians 5:21). We are sons in the Son (see First John 3:2). Though we must come before the almighty with humility nevertheless, even while remembering that on our own we are nothing and can do nothing (see John 15:5), we must approach the throne of grace with confidence (see Hebrews 4:16), and this not just once but with perseverance.

I tell you,
if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.

The LORD knows how to give good gifts to his children (see Matthew 7:11). He calls us friends (see John 15:15) and gives us gifts of friendship. Yet he insists that we learn to persist. He wants our hearts to become more like his, unchanging in our desire to see his blessings flow.

As we ask and keep asking, seek and keep seeking, knock and keep knocking, we find our own desires refined. We find the dross purified from that which we ask. We learn to delight in the gifts the LORD longs to give.

If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

We have been brought to life with Christ. The bond which was against us was removed and nailed to the cross. How vital it is that we persevere with hard, with even seemingly impossible cases, until they too know faith in the power of God and new life in the Spirit.

And even when you were dead
in transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
he brought you to life along with him,

Let us together worship in the holy temple in the presence of the angels, knowing that our prayers have their origin in God's desire for us to pray and so cannot help but finding their fulfillment.