A story is told about a 3-year-old boy who went to the grocery store with his mother. Before they entered the store, she told him, “Now you’re not going to get any chocolate chip cookies, so don’t even ask.” She put him in the cart, and he sat in the little child’s seat while she wheeled down the aisles. He was doing just fine until they came to the cookie section. He saw the chocolate chip cookies, stood up in the seat, and said, “Mom, can I have some chocolate chip cookies?” She said, “I told you not even to ask. You’re not going to get any at all.” So he sat back down. They continued down the aisles, but in their search for certain items, they ended up back in the cookie aisle. “Mom, can I please have some chocolate chip cookies?” She said, “I told you that you can’t have any. Now sit down and be quiet.” Finally, they were approaching the checkout lane. The little boy sensed that this might be his last chance. So just before they got to the line, he stood up on the seat of the cart and shouted in his loudest voice, “In the name of Jesus, may I have some chocolate chip cookies?” And everybody round about just laughed. Some even applauded. Due to the generosity of the other shoppers, the little boy and his mother left with twenty-three boxes of chocolate chip cookies.
Ever wondered what your life would be like if God answered your prayers exactly as you prayed them? There have been times when I wish He would: “Lord, please let me win the lottery so I can prove to you that it won’t spoil me.” But there have also been so many other prayers that would have ended miserably if they had been answered. However, I suppose it is a moot point, because it seems to me that God doesn’t answer too many of our prayers, and when He does, it certainly isn’t in the way we asked. Consider Jacob, whom we read about this morning.
Jacob wronged his brother Esau. Not only did Jacob purchase Esau’s birthright with a cup of stew, but he also tricked his father and stole Esau’s blessing. In his anger, Esau said, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” (Genesis 27:42) To resolve the issue, Jacob ran away. He was gone for twenty years, and today we read about his return home with his two wives and all his possessions.
They camped on the Jabbok River, and that night, when he was alone, Jacob spoke with and wrestled with a heavenly being. Whether it was an angel or God, we do not learn here, but the Prophet Hosea wrote, “He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor.” (Hosea 12:4a)
The Church, looking at the event in light of Hosea’s statement, has long understood Jacob’s wrestling with God as an image of persevering prayer, for Jacob struggled with God and would not let him go until he received God’s blessing. However, what should be noted is that Jacob did receive the blessing, but not before God gave him a busted hip and a new name—Israel. Jacob had his prayer answered, but not in the way he asked for. Jacob prayed for something very specific and personal, and God answered the prayer, but not just for Jacob. God answered Jacob’s prayer for everyone, us included. How?
The Lord blessed Jacob/Israel and also gave him twelve sons, one of whom was Judah. Several generations later in Israel’s lineage, there was a king, David. Many more generations and years later, there was a man named Joseph, whom another angel of the Lord spoke to: “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20b-21)
Jacob prayed, “Bless me,” and the Lord replied, “What you are asking is good, but it is too small. I will bless you, but it’s not going to look like anything you could have ever imagined. Oh, and I’m also going to give you a busted hip so that you remember it.”
Last week we talked about God’s providence; we concluded that we do not believe things come about by luck or chance, nor do we believe the ways of the world have been set on a path of fate from which nothing deviates.
We are a people who believe in God’s providence, defined as God’s wise, loving, and continual governance of all creation, by which He sustains the universe and directs history toward His good purposes while respecting our free will. God takes the good, the bad, and the ugly and uses them for His purposes.
During this past week, I’ve continued to reflect on that, and I’ve been wondering how our prayers work within God’s providence. My question was, if God has this big, beautiful plan worked out in His providence, then what good are my prayers? Why pray?
The easy answer is that Jesus tells us we should pray, and He sets the example for us. But in addition, prayer enlarges our souls so that we might be able to receive more of God.
Imagine you have a teaspoon and a five-gallon bucket. You take them both to the beach and fill them in the ocean. Neither the teaspoon nor the five-gallon bucket diminishes the ocean; however, the five-gallon bucket can receive more. Now, think of God as the ocean. Through our connection and immersion in God, and even through our desires, our souls are enlarged, and we are able to receive more.
We pray because we are told we should, and we pray because it allows us to receive more of God. Those two reasons are fairly straightforward; however, the third reason is more complicated but also more exciting.
When we pray, we are most often looking for a particular result. “Lord, I need ____.” Even when prayed rightly, we focus on the outcome, but what if our prayer were more about communion with God than the result? What if God is saying, “I want you to pray, I want you to pray so that you can receive more of me, but I also want you to pray so that you can be a part of this great work”? This is what St. Paul means when he writes, “We are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.” (1 Corinthians 3:9) God says, “I want you to pray, asking for anything, and like with Jacob who wanted to be blessed, I’m going to take your prayer, your work, and incorporate it into something greater than you could ever ask for or imagine.”
Do our prayers matter? Are they answered? Yes. It’s just that we don’t know how to pray properly. St. Paul teaches us, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27) Our prayers matter, but we don’t know how to pray properly, so the Lord, in His loving care, takes our feeble attempts and perfects them. What does that look like?
I pray to win the lottery, and God says, “No, but through your prayers and your work in My kingdom, I will store up treasures for you in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20b). You pray for healing, and God says, “Yes, but too small; I’ll take your prayer and weave it into Providence. I won’t just heal you and fix you up for a few more years, but I’ll prepare you for the resurrection and eternal life, and even more, I’ll give eternal life to all those who believe in me.” We pray, “Lord, relieve me of my suffering,” and God says, “I can do that, but My greater purpose is to teach you about My Son.” We say, “But Lord, it hurts.” And just when we begin to think He’s not going to answer, we discover that He is sitting with us in that deep darkness, speaking comfort, perhaps not to our physical bodies but to our souls.
We offer up our prayers; they matter, and God hears. God says, “I will take your prayer and perfect it. Along the way, you may get twenty-three boxes of chocolate chip cookies, or, like Jacob, you may get a busted hip or worse. Also like Jacob, you may see your prayer answered today, or tomorrow, or in fifty years, or never, but you and I will be in communion with one another. You and I will be working together, and in the end, you and I will be together, for that too is part of My providence and is, in fact, the ultimate goal.”
The Psalmist writes,
The Lord frustrates the designs of the nations,
he defeats the plans of the peoples.
His own designs shall stand for ever,
the plans of his heart from age to age.
They are happy, whose God is the Lord,
the people he has chosen as his own.
From the heavens the Lord looks forth,
he sees all the children of men.
From the place where he dwells he gazes
on all the dwellers on the earth,
he who shapes the hearts of them all
and considers all their deeds.
(Psalm 33:10-15)
Let us pray (a prayer of St. Ignatius): Take, Lord, receive all our liberties, our memories, our understandings, our whole will, all that we have and all that we possess. You gave it all to us, Lord; we give it all back to you. Do with it as you will, according to your good pleasure. Give us your love and your grace; for with this we have all that we need. Amen.
Candle in a Cave 