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Today’s readings give us two striking, unconventional images of God and of the power of prayer. In the first reading, Moses prays for his men in battle against the Amalekites, and as long as he keeps his arms raised to God, they are victorious. However, if his arms droop from weariness, God will let them lose. In the Gospel reading, Jesus compares God to a corrupt judge who’s being worn out by a widow who keeps after him for justice, and finally gives in just to get her off his back.
This doesn’t sound like the God that we know through human reason alone. Most of us have come to believe in the One we call the Supreme Being, the God who is mighty, all-knowing, all forgiving, all loving, unchanging. He governs the world with serene certainty and has decreed what will happen. He knows our needs, and has decided what to do about them.
How different is the God of the Bible! Here we meet a passionate God, full of surprises. Keep those arms up, Moses, or you’ll blow it! How insane is that? It’s the same with Jesus. Over and over again, he urges us to ask our Father for what we need. But doesn’t God know our needs? Why does he have to be asked repeatedly? So don’t argue! Just do it! Take him at his word when he says that to those who ask, it will be given, but in His own time.
Yeah, but you’ll say that we don’t always get what we
ask for. True, but sometimes we’re better off. I’m sure you heard the saying, “Be careful what you ask for; you might get it.” Whatever happens or doesn’t happen, remember that we are always loved and cared for. Even when God is silent, He is with us.
When Jesus needed words to tell us what God is like, He didn’t call Him Supreme Being. He called Him Father. Those of us who are parents can’t always give our children what we’d like to, even what they need. But we love and stand by them. God is like that. Jesus once said, “Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asks for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him” (Mt 7:9-11).
Maybe there are just some things that God can’t take care of now. God has His reasons, and we can never know them all. But this we do know, and we have Jesus’ word for it: God loves us. God watches over us, and God cares. In the end, it will be all right.
How is your image of God reflected in the way you pray?
Go in peace with God’s blessings,
Deacon Rob