5th Sunday after Easter 29 May 2011 Sermon

5th Sunday after Easter 29.5.11 Whatever you ask...

Our Lord tells us in the Gospel that whatever we ask in prayer will be given to us. There are similar passages in other parts of the Gospel.

Yet we find in practice that we ask for many things which do not eventuate. Can we work out why?

What we ask we shall receive, but there is a footnote to that: the promise applies only if what we ask is in accord with God’s will.

So we can have anything we want becomes we can have anything He wants! This might sound like a real dampener, but on further reflection it need not be so. If we reflect that God loves us more than we love ourselves, and further that He knows better than we do what is good for us - then having what He wants is going to be something worth having.

We learn through prayer and experience how to ask for the right things. Gradually we are transformed in our thinking to be more of the same mind as God. The more we deal with Him the more we come to see things the same way He does.

We might start out asking for material things like more money or a better car, but after a while we are praying for conversion of sinners and forgiveness of enemies.

It may be that we are praying for the right thing but in the wrong way.

So we might pray without due reverence for God’s majesty, or without sufficient trust in His goodness. Our prayer might be more in panic than in love (as the apostles who thought their boat was going to sink.)

Again, over time, we can improve in this area. If we pray consistently we will grow in trust of God to provide all our needs and come to a deeper trust in Him that He will never let us down, even if we may not see the precise way He is going to help.

So we get better at asking for the right thing and in the right way, but what if after getting thus far we still do not receive what we ask?

There are many people who would be praying day and night for what must be the right intention (eg the conversion of one of their children); and they pray with fervour and faith –yet still the request goes unfulfilled.

In these cases the fault does not lie in the prayer or the one praying but in the one prayed for.

If we pray to convert sinners, for example, the sinners themselves will resist conversion and so our prayers may appear to be going for nothing but in fact they are helping to weaken the sinner’s resistance to the grace of God.

Certainly God could override the will of any person but He chooses not to do that. He wants to win the love of each person, not force it. This makes the process a lot longer and harder.

This is why we can feel we are going nowhere but in reality our praying and sacrificing forms part of this long process; and everyday somewhere in the world a breakthrough would be achieved – some long-term prayer objective is being realised.

We would like to force goodness on others, to make them good, but we have to go the long way round and pray for it instead.

We are ‘receiving’ whatever we ask, but it may not come today or tomorrow. We can be confident however that no prayer is wasted and every prayer properly made will contribute to the fulfilment of God’s will.

So, let us pray - for the right thing in the right way and for the right length of time, never doubting, never giving up.

Ask like this, and we shall receive.