Reflection

Have you ever prayed really really hard for something and not had that prayer granted? Have you ever looked back in life at a prayer you once made and thought thank goodness God didn’t grant it? This week’s gospel reading is a lesson in prayer, but more importantly, it’s a lesson in having faith that God is a parent who will not let us down.
Let’s face it, we pray hardest to God when we want something. We pray hardest when something seems beyond our human means and we need some kind of miracle, this often leads us to make inappropriate prayers. How many of us pray that the love of our life will notice us in the launderette? How many of us pray to win the lottery and make secret deals with God that we will donate half the winning to charity in return? How many of us pray to God for our football team to score a winning goal in the closing minutes of a match? Worse… we lose faith when such prayers aren’t answered! We find it difficult to believe that unanswered prayers might mean that God knows better, or has a different purpose for us.