Daddy Knows!

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"Ask and it will be given to you; Seek and you will find; Knock and it will be opened to you" (Mt 7:7)


We shall continue our meditation on the Sermon on Prayer.

 Mt 5:44, "Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you."

Christian life is delightful when we obey, and difficult otherwise. The commandments of Christ are not unreasonable or impossible. When we start praying for those who contradict us or conspire against us, the love of God overwhelms us so we can love them with the same love. The Lord purposely puts us with difficult persons. It is part of our discipline. Grace sufficient to live with hostility and misunderstanding is granted to us when we pray. Prayer prevents bitterness enter our hearts, and uproots if there's any against the person who has hurt us and for whom we are praying.

 Mt 6:5,6, "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray that they may be seen by men... But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place."

Of all spiritual disciplines, prayer can most easily become a show-off. It is pharisaic to go around telling how many hours one prays everyday. Impressing people has no other reward. Prayer is not for parading. The secret of praying is praying in secret. Unless we run to a place of solitude, we will miss the whisper of the Spirit amidst all the bustle.

 Mt 6:7,8, "When you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him."

Prayer is not to tell God what He knows not. It is to verbalise our feelings to a Father as a child. Simple prayers are sublime. Remember the Publican who simply cried, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" (Lk 18:13). A father knows the child's needs; but he is delighted when the child asks him. That enlivens the relationship. The mother knows when to feed her baby, but her maternal instincts are stimulated when it cries for milk.

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed,
The motion of a hidden fire that trembles in the breast.
Prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try;
Prayer the sublimest strains that reach the Majesty on High!
                                             (James Montgomery, 1771-1854)


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