God Knows But You May Not - More Seeds of Hope

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

There is more than one way to pray. Jesus taught us the Our Father, but it isn’t the only way to pray effectively.

There was a proud man who was very religious. He said a rosary each day. He never cheated or lied. He paid his taxes, raised his family, loved his wife, and yet, deep down, he was miserable.

He thought he needed more prayer so he said two rosaries each day. Of course, he increased the speed at which he prayed, but still he felt he was being sacrificial and his pride increased. His tolerance for others decreased. He had a short fuse and easily became angry. He alienated his children who no longer wanted to be around him.

His wife suggested that he might pray to God about his challenges. He responded, “God already knows what I need. To prove my faithfulness, I say two rosaries a day! What more could God want?”

“I am not sure,” his wife said. “Why don’t you ask God?”

The man dismissed this suggestion, but later he felt that he should listen to his wife. He knelt down, did the sign of the cross, and leaning on his bed, he began, “Lord, what do you want from me? How can I help you?”

The response was immediate. It came as a thought surfacing in his mind, “Tell me about your life. Tell me how I can help you. Spend time with me.”

Jesus doesn’t want us to babble on, using lots of superficial words in our prayer. But I hope you agree that Jesus encourages us to open ourselves fully to God, to share the intimate details of our life with our Lord.

Often times when we talk about ourselves and our lives, we recognize things that we had not yet understood about our own lives. Insight come to us as we share.

Try telling God today what’s on your mind, your concerns, hopes, fears. God wants to hear. When we pray about what matters most in our lives, clarity comes to us. We get to know ourselves better.

And as it turned out in our story, the man began to get along better with his kids, and neighbors. And his wife never even had to say, “I told so.”

No one knows us better than God, not even ourselves. Come, pray, and find out what God already knows.

Now let’s take 30 seconds to water the seed…

What do you want to share with God today?