Reflection
And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Luke 11:1-13
In intercessory prayer we bring our concerns, hopes, fears, and joys to a God who cares for us as a parent cares for his or her child, a God who acts for our good in and through created causes. This view of divine action fully supports prayer for healing of someone we love, for strength to do a task, for peace in our world, and for all the things that matter to us. We bring what matters to God, and we entrust ourselves to our God who acts for our good in and through the natural world, who waits upon and respects the integrity of natural processes and human freedom, who draws us to participate in God’s saving action in the world, and who promises to bring all to redemptive fulfillment in Christ.
Denis Edwards, How God Acts
Prayer
Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
Psalm 138: 2-3
Action
There is a sense that intercessory prayer is out of step with a scientific world view. Examine your position. Reflect on the thought of God acting in a noninterventionist way through created causes, through the laws of nature and the natural world, acting always through every aspect of creation, a God who meets us personally in the life of grace and acts providentially for our good. ( Denis Edwards).
Suggested Reading
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”
He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test.
Luke 11:1-13
For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.
Saint Teresa of Avila
To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.
Martin Luther
Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.
Mahatma Gandhi
Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.
Mother Teresa
This, I thought, is what is meant by ‘thy will be done’ in the Lord’s Prayer, which I had prayed time and again without thinking about it. It means that your will and God’s will may not be the same. It means there’s a good possibility that you won’t get what you pray for. It means that in spite of your prayers you are going to suffer.
Wendell Berry
The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.
Søren Kierkegaard
I believe that prayer is our powerful contact with the greatest force in the universe.
Loretta Young
I have lived to thank God that not all my prayers have been answered.
Jean Ingelow