The Mystery of Asking
Why do we pray? If God already knows what we need before we ask, and God actually cares about us more than we care about ourselves, then why do we have to ask, receive, seek, find, (Matthew 7:7)? This is the mystery of asking. Prayer is a symbiotic relationship with life and with God, a synergy which creates a result larger than the exchange itself. We ask not to change God, but to change ourselves. We pray to form a living relationship, not to get things done. We need to pray to keep the symbiotic relationship moving and growing. Prayer is not a way to try to control God, or even to get what we want.
Prayers of intercession or petition are one way of situating our life within total honesty and structural truth. We are all forever beggars before God and the universe. We can never engineer or guide our own transformation or conversion. If we try, it will be a self-centered and well-controlled version of conversion, with most of our preferences still fully in place, but now well-disguised. We must “humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.” It’s important that we ask, seek, and knock to keep ourselves in the right relationship with Life Itself.
Life is a gift, totally given to us without cost, every day of it, and every part of it. A daily and chosen “attitude of gratitude” will keep our hands open to expect that life, allow that life, and receive that life at ever-deeper levels of satisfaction—but never to think we deserve it.
O Mighty God, Help this world to know what is wrong and what is right. Provide peace and hope to those who are suffering from injustice. Show them that you are there, and you care for them and that you will make all things right. God, I pray for a world full of love and compassion.
Smitten With Goodness 