Holyrood Church 715 West 179 Street, Upper West side Manhattan, USA, 212-923-3770

Prayer is our special connection with God and with his power

 

 

The Gospel (Matthew 7:7-11) for today challenges beliefs that as older we get into Christianity now God will do everything before even, we have been asked. Instead of increasing in prayer life, we decrease slowly.

 

What was the necessity for Jesus to Pray, have you ever thought about it? In four gospels there are more than 29 verses referring to Jesus' praying.

 

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

 

Prayer is our special connection to God and his power.  Jesus also puts prayer in the context of our relationship with God, saying that if even we as sinful human beings give our children what they ask for, how much more will God, our Father in heaven, bless his children with good gifts?

The gift of prayer should be personal for us. This isn’t just an abstract concept, but it’s the expression of a very relational, heart-to-heart connection. God wants to bless us as we come to him in prayer, especially because he’s our loving Father.

 

Prayer is an is admission of God. No matter how you slice it, when we pray, we are admitting to God and to ourselves that we believe. If you are earnestly sharing your heart with God, you are also expressing your belief. You can’t call out knowing God is present and not expect Him to answer.

 

And also, prayer is submission to God. When we pray for Her will in our life, we are submitting ourselves to Her plan. Hence, we become more in tune with what it means to yield our will to Her.

 

This Gospel also reminds us that we also need to believe in our prayers, to trust that they’re being heard, and that God honors them. “For everyone who keeps asking, receives; and those who keep seeking, find; and to the one who keeps knocking, the door will be opened.” That’s a very clear promise for us to trust in, while remembering that God’s thoughts are different from ours, and his ways higher than ours, as the heavens are above the earth (Isaiah 55:8,9). So we can’t dictate when or how God will answer our prayers; we can only trust that he will, in his own good will and time, as we pray with anticipation of his faithfulness. Our prayers matter greatly, and God honors them.

 

Blessings

 

Fr. Luis+

Date news: 
Lunes, Octubre 5, 2020 - 10:45

Ministerio en el tiempo del Coronavirus (Covid 19): Prevenir, curar y acompañar

Ahora tenemos que darle forma a lo que algun@s han comenzado a llamar; La Iglesia en Casa. Aunque yo me sigo preguntando; ¿qué hacen quienes no tienen un hogar? Por esto a la misma vez, estoy declarando desde hoy en nuestra Iglesia Santa Cruz una jornada de cuaresma de oración, ayuno y leer la Biblia en el Tiempo del Coronavirus.

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