Readings: Esther 14:1,3-4,11,13-14, Ps. 138:1-3,7-8, Matthew 7:7-12
“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11)
Prayer can be summed up in the word Jesus used in our Gospel passage today: “ASK”; A – ask, S – seek, K – knock. Everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks, finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. In this way, Jesus highlights the importance of faith and trust in prayer.
Believe that you will get what you ask for before praying. Jesus draws an analogy with a child asking his father for bread or fish, saying that if we who are evil can be trusted to give our children what they ask for, how much more God. To remind us that God is a Father, Jesus taught us to begin our prayer with “Our Father who art in heaven.”
Jesus assures us today that whenever we ask, God gives us something good, even if it is not exactly what we expect. This is the faith that should inspire us to pray and enjoy prayer at all times. Sometimes, that which we are asking for may not be good for us at that particular time, or it may not even be good at all for us, but we don’t know it because we are merely humans, weak creatures. We only need to trust God completely and believe that He always gives us the best.
Our first reading today presents an example of a woman who prayed very well: Queen Esther. There was a difficult situation at hand; her people (the whole nation of Israel) faced extermination. A bill was about to be passed from the King’s palace to kill all the Israelites. She, too, would have been killed, so she went to God.
Esther displayed great confidence in God. Although she was the King’s wife, she did not rely on her position. She did not think she could lure the king by her beauty or charm; she knew she was nothing without God. She prayed before embarking on a visit to the King.
Esther’s prayer teaches us the difference between asking and complaining. While asking is done with a disposition of love and humility toward God, complaining expresses our bitterness toward God without faith in His ability to grant our requests. Prayer is always optimistic, but complaining is highly pessimistic.
God was angry with the Israelites in the desert because they complained instead of praying. The Israelites allowed their hunger to get into them so much that they said they wished they had died at the hands of the Egyptians. They quickly forgot what God had done for them. When we pray, we must remember what God has done. Jesus taught us to start our prayer with praise. In this way, we would not be tempted to relapse into mere complaining.
Secondly, there is a significant difference between asking and commanding. Esther was the Queen of Israel, yet before she opened her mouth to pray, she brought herself low by lying on the bare earth from morning till night. Do you want to pray well? Forget who you are, bring yourself down to the position of a beggar; ask, seek, and knock.
Let us pray: Bestow on us, we pray, O Lord, a spirit of always pondering on what is right and of hastening to carry it out, and, since without you we cannot exist, may we be enabled to live according to your will. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. May God’s abundant blessings be upon us all. (Thursday of the 1st week of Lent, Liturgical Colour: Violet. Bible Study: Esther 14:1,3-4,11,13-14, Ps. 138:1-3,7-8, Matthew 7:7-12)
@Rev. Fr. Evaristus E. Abu