Reflection On Mathew 7: 7-12

Jesus possessed a unique talent for simplifying religious subjects his response on prayers being answered in good example. Our ancestors, like ourselves, must have found it very confusing. Today’s Gospel could have easily been inspired by the question, “How do I get my prayers answered?” the Lord states simply, “Ask and you will receive.” Do we believe that it’s that simple? If Jesus said it, we should believe it. You might remember the many things you have asked for and never received. Notice, though, that Jesus does not tell us that we will receive what we ask for. Also, if we do receive it, He does not promise that it will come immediately. Whenever we ask, we do receive something. The asking itself is an expression of faith. The answer given brings us joy. The answer not given brings us humility. All three are precious gifts. One or more of them is always there in the asking, just as Jesus said. Seeking to find and knocking to open are bit other ways to express the same idea. We should pray often, for God cannot answer a prayer which has not been prayed. When we pray as Jesus did, “thy will, not mine, be done”, and mean it, we will always be at peace with the answer we receive.
The depth of our faith depends on how well we are able to understand God as knowing us, knowing our needs. God, our Heavenly Father, in His supreme wisdom knows best what is useful for us and what is not. He chooses to answer our calls and prayers with gifts that are more suiting to us. He may not look at the immediate gratification of a need, but God provides us with His gifts more useful from the point of view of our ultimate ends in life. We ask for our needs; what God provides may not be what we ask, but what we really need. Pray to our Heavenly Father to create in us a child-like trust to let Him decide what we really need and to accept with more grace and gratitude what He offers us.
Questions to ponder:
How far your faith is strong enough in God?
Do your prayers are answered in time?
How do you elaborate this concept on God’s response to your need?


Comments

Post a Comment

write your comments here!!

Popular posts from this blog

Reflection On Mark 8: 11-13

There is a proverb which states, “There are none so blind as those who won’t see.”  It means if your mind is set on one direction, it will be almost impossible to convince you of something different. Such is the frame of mind of the Pharisees concerning Jesus. When they approach Him and ask for a sign from heaven, their mind is already made up that Jesus is fake. Their intention is to expose Him as such and thus to undermine his authority and even hopefully, to completely discredit Him and have Him lose popular support. The Pharisees were the perennial negative critics of Jesus. They were the many little crosses He had to accept and carry every day prior to His big cross. Notice how they boldly stepped forward here and immediately started to argue with Jesus. They refused to take the Lord’s words at face value. They claimed a sign from the heavens would enable them to place their faith in the Lord, but Jesus knew that even the most spectacular signs would not convince them to a...
Read more

Reflection On Mark 1: 12-15

In the reading, we get two messages for today. Jesus’ forty days of wilderness and a call to repentance.  Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness paralleled Israel’s forty years in the wilderness. In both the instances, there is the apparent ‘absence of God.’ The presence of God emerges as a result of struggle and testing. Satan tests Jesus in the wilderness, whereas Israel tested God there. Our Lord’s suffering, hunger, loneliness and humiliation at the hands of His enemies were all for us. This very thought should make us feel gladly welcome the little bit of suffering and humiliation we are to take for ourselves in our routines. One may not be in strict fasting from food and drink, yet there are subtle ways of observing penance in our daily lives – a controlled temper, less uncharitable talks, a little help, etc. which will help to keep our unruly minds and bodies in cheek, while at the same time it will show that we are grateful to our loving Savior for all that He suffered for u...
Read more

Reflection On Luke 4: 24-30

Today’s readings speak to the subject of God’s broad mindedness in the person of Naaman. He was the Syrian army commander who became the recipient of God’s merciful healing. Jesus was totally aware of this man’s is having been cured of leprosy and, In turn, made comment on the meaning of this healing. Those legally loyal Jewish people became very angry with Jesus as they listened to the virtues of this foreigner being extolled over their own. We, too, can fall into this same sin of narrow-mindedness. Do we think, for example, that Catholics have a monopoly on the whole truth and nothing but the truth, while Protestants, Orthodox, Jewish and other people are all in unyielding error? If we truly feel that way, may God help us. Catholics don’t own God; either do the Protestants or the Jews or any other group. Not even the fundamentalists can claim exclusive rights to God. God is for all people. The Jews thought that the Messiah would be for the Jews only. Since Jesus did ...
Read more