This text was covered before Christmas and so there was little time to enter a blog, but now is a new year. The Wednesday group had an exciting conversation about this text and what happens in prayer. The story in Luke has a friend who comes to your house in the middle of the night and asks for bread. Even though you are annoyed, you get up and give him bread just so he will go away. The point being that if you know how to respond to the needs of another because they are persistent, how much more will God respond to our requests.
This all sounds straightforward and wonderful, but not every prayer we offer seems to be answered. I pray for someone to be healed, and the healing never happens. The Bible makes it sound so easy, ask, and it will be given you, seek, and you will find. Our experience tells us that's not always the case. What to we say about this dilema?
If we say that God answers every prayer, then maybe God answers in ways that are not always obvious. I may not be healed of a disease, but I am given the strength to face my disease. My disease doesn't have to define or limit me.
If I pray for someone else and what I request doesn't happen, maybe my prayer puts me is a different place and opens me to God in a surprising way. The psalms give a witness to that shift. In some of the psalms, the writer is angry or disappointed in God. God has not delivered what they expected. The writer gives full voice to their being upset. And then something amazing happens. As the psalm unfolds, the writer is moved from anger to praise, disappointment to joy. How that happens, we are not told, however, that it happens is clear by the end of the psalm. God invites us to bring everything in our prayers. We are not to hold back one thought or emotion. By praying, we open ourselves to the grace of God that can move us to a different and better place in the living of our lives. Our prayers are answered, but not in ways we expected.
Finally, God has a different perspective on our lives that we do. Sometimes the worse things that happen in our lives become the occasion for surprising blessings. As I prayed for my father's battle with diabetes to end, he was brought back to life hrough the intervention of the hospital. I was very upset that my prayer was not answered. I do not believe that God wanted my father to suffer any longer, but God used that extra time given to have my father and I reconciled in a way that I had not imagined possible. My father and I reconnected, and I will always be grateful for that gracious gift that was given, even if I had prayed for something different.
This covers our conversation about prayer. We move on this week in the gospel of Luke. Join the conversation, either the class on Wednesday at noon at the CEB or the blog on our website.
Peace,
Pastor Summer
1 comment:
What struck me during our discussion about the man knocking on his neighbor's door is that he knew his neighbor was there. There was someone on the other side of the door. That is faith. We pray, not in hope that someone will answer, but in faith that God is hearing our prayer and will respond in the way he deems best.
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