Thursday of the first week of Lent (Day 9)

Today's Readings

Today's Gospel can be a difficult one for some of us. We all have situations for which we have asked something of God and did not receive it. How are we to reconcile our experience with this command and promise of Jesus?

I offer a couple of ideas for your own prayerful consideration. First, Jesus puts these three actions together: ask, seek, and knock. It seems to me that we have to do all three to really enter into the prayer that Jesus is calling us to. We must ask for the answer to our prayer, we must seek to entrust ourselves to God's will, and we must knock on the door of God's heart through our persistence. When all three of these actions make up our prayer we are better equipped to understand God's answer, especially if it is not the one we wanted. The three actions are acts of faith and trust in the Providential Wisdom of God.

Second, I believe that we have to see God as a loving Father. A Father who wants to give His children what they need. What follows is a terribly weak analogy but worth considering: imagine a little child who needs a surgery but does not want it, is scared, and begs his daddy not to let it happen. His dad is heart broken but knows what is best for his child and has to do it for the ultimate good of his child. I believe faith and trust compel us to believe that God has a higher and more profound vantage point than we do, and that He only wants what is best for our ultimate good, which is our salvation.

I do not think either one of these is the answer to the difficulty, but I do believe it gives us a starting point for trying to understand God's mysterious providence at work in our lives. If you are angry with God because He did not answer your prayer the way you wanted Him to answer it, please do not leave it at that. Bring it to prayer, talk to Him about the situation, about your anger, and allow Him to give you the answer. Continue to pray (talk to God) about the unanswered prayer, and trust that He desires your ultimate good. Keep asking, seeking, and knocking.