Dear friends, prayer is an essential part of our Christian spirituality. It is something that connects us to God our Father and maker. It is a relationship we express to God as our Father with trust and confidence in our relationship with Him. We ought to have the right attitude to prayer, if we chooses to confirm our relationship with God.
In our gospel text of today, Jesus teaches us how to pray. He not only thought us how to pray but gave to us the best pattern to all forms of prayers in the lord’s prayer. He already knew the attitudes of the Scribes and the Pharisees towards prayer and warned us not to be like them. In other words, they pray to attract the attention of people instead of communicating with God (Mathew 6:7-15).
Prayer, for Jesus, is a relationship, an attitude, a channel of communication. It is thanksgiving, praise and petition. All these are the components of the pattern Jesus teaches us today about a good prayer. Prayer acknowledges our insufficiency, our weakness and our vulnerability.
It expresses our dependence on God for everything. It presupposes that, we are praying to our Father and not to a magician or someone we run to, only when we need Him to help us solve our problems. God is our Father and we are His children. To God, words do not mean anything, yet we use our words to express our intentions to Him.
What matters the most in prayer is our heart’s desires and attitude we put in while praying. We need to initiate an attitude of humility, trust and confidence in God, knowing that He will hear and answer us. God is a Father who listens, understands and accepts us the way we are. He desires to provide for our needs according to His will. Let us stop the attitude of forcing God to answer us. Prayer is waiting for God’s time and not our own timing. This makes our prayer a lot easier, simpler and more meaningful.
Today let us ask ourselves, what is our attitude towards prayer? Do we become impatient with God when our needs are not answered? Does our actions in prayer shows that we trust in God’s love and providence? If we are guilty of impatience and commanding God to act, let us change our attitude today. Let us remember that God is our Father and He cares for us. Peace be with you.
