Tomorrow is another Sunday and it happens to be Daylight Savings. I guess that means I get to sleep in for an extra hour. Maybe I should get up at the same time though and start off the day a little less hurried? We shall see if that happens. The odds are not in favor for such an event.
Tomorrows lesson in my catachesis class is taken from Luke 11. Have I mentioned how much I selfishly appreciate being able to participate in this program. Like so often I don’t spend enough time on small sections of scripture and miss out. Well, this lesson is on prayer, something I fail at too. Sometimes I get hung up on the thought that He God already knows my needs and desires and He already knows the needs and desires of everyone else. So why do I need to pray? Hmmm…Jesus does tell us to pray. So, I guess I should start there. He wants me to pray, but why? Does He want me to be aware of what I really need and what I really should desire? Tomorrows lesson zooms in on the parable that Jesus tells his disciples because they had asked him how they should pray. The story in case you don’t know is about a man that receives and unexpected guest in the middle of the night. Late at night. This man is unfortunately unprepared to provide nourishment for his guest who has been on a lengthy journey and is probably very hungry and tired. The man unfortunately does not have easy access to a local convenience. So the man determines to go to his neighbor and request bread from him in the middle of the night. The neighbor is not pleased with being disturbed, but does eventually give the man bread, BUT not because he considers the man to be a friend. “I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend,…”
I think the reason I don’t pray as often as I should for things that I may desire is out of fear that my prayer will go unanswered. I don’t doubt Jesus hears me. I just know that His timing is not mine and His ways are not mine. This is my struggle. Regardless I am told to ask. So, I am going to resolve to move past my fear, the fear of an impatient child, and ask, and seek and knock. I know that what I see as unanswered is really God saying “wait.” So, I shall in my waiting cry out to Him for not only what I desire but also for what I need maybe some help to bear with my impatience and of course wisdom. If you have a hard time praying too, Jesus tells His disciples and us how to pray and what to pray for just before he tells His story. Check it out at the beginning of Luke 11.
This evening while I was rummaging through a drawer somewhere in my house I came upon some jewelry that my mother-in-law gave us that belonged to her mother who had passed away. I was reminded of a time when we had visited with her and were saying our goodbyes and before letting us go she prayed with us and for us. I can remember how blessed I felt to have been prayed over. I am ever so grateful for those persons in my life who have prayed for me and with me, especially when I so often fail to do so. Thank you Grandma and other family and friends that knock at the doors of heaven for my sake and for the sake of my needs and desires. ” For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”
Footnote: I usually have my most wonderful husband proof read posts before I put them up, to make sure I make some sort of sense, but he happens to be in bed hopefully sleeping. So if I don’t make sense then please forgive me it is late, and I’ve been on the mend from a sickness excetera, excetera. 🙂
~Laura