“Perseverance in Prayer”
As we listen to Abraham bargaining with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, and as we hear Jesus’ story of the friend who pesters the householder out of bed and into the kitchen for bread, we come to understand the lesson of today’s story: “Perseverance in Prayer.”
Along with perseverance comes progress in our prayer lives. Not necessarily learning how to pray better but learning better what exactly is prayer. Perseverance in prayer will bring us what we need. But what we need is not always what we want! Jesus himself mentions “the first (and best) of the Father’s gifts,” is the Holy Spirit. How many of us would think to ask first for that?
Jesus then teaches us what prayer is all about, basically, not imposing our will on God, but opening ourselves to God’s will. For this, the Spirit is indeed the best gift!
Interestingly enough, the disciples’ request for Jesus to teach them how to pray didn’t come out of the blue. Jesus was praying and they saw him. The disciples wanted to pray, also – it’s that simple. Jesus isn’t a “do as I say” teacher, but a “do as I do teacher.” The ultimate act of discipleship is emulating the Master. And there is no more important way to emulate Jesus than by praying as he did.
Prayer in our daily lives is so very important! Why? Because without prayer, we can become disconnected” from our Master and from our faith community, then, discipleship itself and fidelity to the mission of Jesus – is in jeopardy.
Jesus didn’t just teach the disciples to say words. Yes, he gave them the words to what we now know as the “Lord’s Prayer” – but that was just the beginning! Beyond the words, though, he taught his disciples that real prayer has certain characteristics: 1) persistence; 2) petitioning, 2) seeking, and 3) knowing that only the good is given to us.
As we grow in our spiritual lives, as we grow in our discipleship and our stewardship – as the demands on us intensify – the need for prayer correspondingly grows. The difficulty comes in how and when we pray.
Most of us first learned to pray by saying prayers – meal prayers, bed time prayers, the Guardian Angel prayer, the Our Father and Hail Mary. This is a good beginning, because it gives us an anchor. It gives us the words to get started. As we grow older, however, and our need grows greater, there is always the risk that these “memorized prayers,” prayers known by heart and so familiar to us, will become routine.
The kind of prayer Jesus taught is prayer from the heart, a prayer of communion, a prayer of attentiveness to the presence of God. We can’t ask or seek or find if we aren’t sure of the presence of God.
All prayer – even saying familiar and much-loved memorized prayers – must bring us to a divine encounter. It is when we meet the (God) in that encounter that we are really praying. This may happen on a walk in the woods or on the beach, lying in bed at night with the one we love, sitting by the bedside of an ailing parent, child or friend. It is when we open ourselves up and allow God to find us, wherever we are, in whatever state of life or predicament, that God touches us and leaves us touched in a way that we have never been touched before. He teaches us to ask, seek and knock.
Prayer is simply, communion of God with us. It is the communication of us and God on the most personal level. I would like to recommend a wonderful book titled: “The Holy Longing” by Ronald Rohlheiser, which is a great read on how to search for the Holy in our everyday busy lives.
The gospels are strewn with examples and incidences where Jesus is praying – from immediately after his Baptism, all the way through to dying on the cross.
This close and personal relationship with God expressed in prayer between Jesus and His Father, is the type of relationship God wants with us. The kind of relationship Jesus wants his disciples to have with God is as with a “Father.”
What type of relationship do you have with God? How can you make it better through daily prayer?