The Lord’s Prayer musings
When we pray, we often act like little helpless little children, asking someone bigger like our earthly mother or father for something we can’t do for ourselves. But when we grow older, our earthly parents try to teach us to go and get our own milk, go and get a job and earn money to acquire the object of our desire. The apostle Paul taught that:
“Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?”[i]
We have a Heavenly Father who wants us to grow up too and work to accomplish our own miracles. The greatest miracle is subjecting our own will to the Father through faith in Christ and repentance and helping others to do the same. Fortunately, we have grace to help in time of need.
“It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means.”[ii]
One of the simplest rules of planet earth seems to be, if you want something bad enough, you can often achieve it with a lot of work on your part, even impossible things like becoming astronauts, or building skyscrapers.
Jesus taught an important lesson in the parable of the importunate widow about doing our part to get what we desire even if it is an impossible miracle. It is often called “the persistent widow”; she worked hard to get what she wanted from an evil judge who usually only worked for rich clients. God is more gracious and willing to give his children what they want in righteousness, but expects them to pray with faith, just like the importunate widow pleaded in faith, and work at it persistently to accomplish the desired act just like she did.[iii]
Another parable shows just how willing the Father is to answer our earnest faithful righteous prayers. Jesus said:
“Now which one of you fathers will his son ask for a fish, and instead of a fish, he will give him a snake? Or he will even ask for an egg, and his father will give him a scorpion?”
“So if you, despite being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”[iv]
Part of growing up spiritually is working tirelessly in teamwork with God, the Father, His son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost to accomplish the righteous prayers for ourselves and others. We can’t just sit back and wait, doing nothing. James said that “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”[v] So our prayers are dead, if we are not willing to get off of our knees and go to work to accomplish the thing prayed for in humility and righteousness.
[i] Hebrews 12:9 KJV
[ii] Bible Dictionary “Grace” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bd/grace?lang=eng
[iii] Luke 18:1-8 KJV
[iv] Luke 11:11-13 New American Standard Bible
[v] James 2:14-26 NKJV