“Ask and you shall receive.” Sometimes this is hard to see in our lives, harder even to believe when things are going wrong. We pray for one thing and something else happens to us. What then are we to make of that? Should we stop asking? Should we flood heaven with the same intentions again and again? I think it means we should keep an attitude of prayer. To keep Jesus as our focus and keep in mind that our prayers are often answered in ways we just don’t expect. We can’t forget the part that comes after the reminder to ask, the part where it says that a father wouldn’t give a stone when someone needs bread. The reciprocal is true as well. God the Father will not give us what we ask for if its bad for us, He’ll give us bread even when we have asked for a stone. God has a vision of what we need, a clear view of the eternal, and how to best get us there.
By keeping a prayerful mindset, focusing on God and His Will, by praying but then being open to receiving whatever answer God has in store for us, we can begin to see that He is working in our lives. Prayer helps us to discern, to attune ourselves to God’s grace in our lives. So, we ask. We trust. We seek. Because what we are supposed to be seeking is union with God. “Seek and you shall find.” If we look, even when things seem to be difficult, we can find God’s fingerprints around us. God will provide, God will give us what we need, we just need to not limit his answer to our own idea of how things should be.
A reflection on the readings for Thursday of the First Week in Lent: March 10th, 2022