Prayers sent

Luke 11:1-13

1 He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." 2 He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial." 5 And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, "Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.' 7 And he answers from within, "Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.' 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. 9 "So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

Reflection

Jesus, teach me how to pray. Jesus prayed... the disciples witness Jesus in prayer. So they want to know how to pray. Is it the same with us. Do we even pray? We see on Facebook or Twitter a request for prayer. Did so many people end that prayer with prayers sent? Was that the beginning and end of it? Do people really stop and pray? My pessimism tells me that the majority of those who sent the answers to this prayer request began and ended with the phrase "prayers sent."

Prayers sent? What does that mean? Does it mean that you replied and hit post? Jesus takes us much deeper than this. Jesus teaches us to pray much deeper.

First we address God. God who is holy. A God with whom we fully recognize that we are God's children. God loves us as the little babies that we are. We come to God in need of God's full support. Without God we couldn't exist. We would die without God's love and care.

We have a God that is holy. Sure God is holy... but we pray here that we may keep God holy in our hearts and lives. That we would live our lives in harmony with God. That we would honor God and know that without God we have no being.

Next we pray for the kingdom of God. Not that God would rule this kingdom so much but that God's kingdom would come into our lives here and now. We fully know that God's kingdom came through Jesus and we anticipate in joy and hope that God's kingdom will be fulfilled in heaven forever.

The will of God... what is the will of God in your life. Will God's will be done? Sure! God's will is done even without our prayer. We ask here that God's will would be done through us as well. We seek to be God's instrument of God's will because God's will is always good and gracious.

We're getting closer to "prayers sent," We are asking that we be involved with our God and we be involved with our Facebook friend's prayer request... not just be typing something... but by our participation in God's will. Now we ask that God's will would be done in heaven and on earth. Yes heaven and earth. We go beyond ourselves to those who have gone beyond and before us and we go with ourselves by participating in God's will on earth through our action.

It's here in our prayer that we can thank God. God already knows that to do the will of God, we will need God's help. We need all things to sustain daily life. We need food, clothing, a good home and devoted family. We need government and good weather. We need everything needed for life in order to do God's will. And God provides just what we need in the measure that we need it. This is our prayer for daily bread from God.

Oh yes! We need forgiveness to do God's will. We need to be forgiven and we need to forgive and we need to know that we are not perfect and can only live with God's forgiveness, lest we die. To do God's will for our Facebook friend we need to be alive in Christ.

Just as Jesus knew temptation and evil. God knows that we will face temptation and evil and need God to help us. We pray here that to be of use to our Facebook friend in prayer that God protect us and guide us when we are tempted and when we face evil.

Now we're set... we knock! We knock and we talk and we go to God in prayer for our Facebook friend. We ask to be involved. And we may have to be prepared for a return visit from God. Jesus just might come to our door and knock. Jesus may come and knock. And when we answer that door... perhaps... Jesus may say... "Can Billy come out to play?"

Are you willing to get involved with your Facebook friends prayer request?

Think about it... think... go to God in prayer... before you send that "Prayers sent" message.
Be honest with yourself and your friend about that "Prayers sent" or just leave it alone.

Thanks be to God!

Music

Prayer
Thank you Jesus for teaching us how to pray... prayers sent... today... tomorrow... and forever. --- Amen