Some years ago I needed a massive FAVOUR – a massive YES from God.
In the event, God said a thundering NO to me.
This led to great pain and humiliation for me.
People gloated at my predicament.
Should I stop walking with God, was a real question for me.
But I simply had to give the same answer that Peter gave to Jesus when Jesus asked him if he was also going to leave him:
“Lord, to whom shall I go? thou hast the words of eternal life. “And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:68–69).
TOO MANY CHRISTIANS/ CATHOLICS THINK THAT PRAYER AND PRAYING IS ABOUT US ASKING GOD FOR THINGS WE WANT.
They also think, for some reason, that God is always supposed to say “YES”!
But, prayer, is, at its very root, not about asking God for favours.
Prayer is about being in the presence of God, communing with God and offering Him the worship and praise that is His due.
But, of course, there is, in Christian tradition, the phenomenon of Intercessory Prayer.
And this is rooted in Scripture
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you”. Matthew 7:7.
We Christians believe that God has given us humans free will.
But we forget, that God is free too – in fact infinitely free.
His arm cannot be twisted – at least if He is not willing to let it be twisted.
Even Jesus, the Son of God – knew that there were limits on what He could demand if His Father.
He did not want to be crucified.
In fact He prayed:
“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me“. Luke 22:42
But then He finished that prayer with:
“Yet. I want your will to be done, not mine”. Luke 22:42
As Job in the Old Testament said
Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble”? Job 2:10
IN CONCLUSION
We can ask God for what we want or think we need.
God is free to say YES or NO.
And if He says NO we must be able to say
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 