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[Jesus said:] "Ask and it will be given to you,
seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. For
everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds, and to the
one who knocks, the door will be opened."
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The movie "Letters
to God" is an expressly Christian approach to a disturbing problem in
today's world, namely, children's illnesses and a child's early death.
The subject is not easy to present, and were the message of the movie
not based on a true story, it might be too simplistic in its approach.
The movie points out that if a Christian is trying to understand the
problem, prayer to God must be at the very core of understanding it.
Young Tyler Doherty's prayer is simply "talking to God" through writing
letters. He is speaking his mind to God as he deals with the problems
that he has and that others have. Presenting a
definition of prayer that every Christian should learn, Tyler's letters
to God manage to change the people around him as they experience the
simple faith of a small child. That faith guides Tyler to ask God to
change people to be better so that the world can be better. The people
around Tyler learned from him by
reading his letters.
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How
does God answer our prayer? People
of faith
often guess how God works, thinking at times that God did exactly what
we asked by divine
intervention, or God allowed things to take their normal course and did
nothing, or God
influenced other people to help, or
some other explanation. The
truth is, of course, that we have no idea how prayer works. All we
know is that Jesus tells us to ask in prayer. In fact, Jesus tells us
to ask all the time, in every circumstance, and he assures us that the
prayer will always
be heard; the door will always be opened.
It is a matter of faith that God will listen to us. The Christian will talk to God with that in mind. There will always be questions concerning whether anyone is listening or whether we are merely "thinking" thoughts that we hope someone hears or the like. Such questions will always be present because we do not know the answers with the certainty of earthly proof. Prayer takes us to a different realm of life, the realm in which we only have the certainty of someone else's word, namely Jesus'. With that assurance we pray, knowing that God will listen to our every prayer. Tyler Doherty in the movie "Letters to God" had a simple faith in God. He knew that God listened to him. He proceeded to tell God everything that was on his mind, and always with the thought that he wanted to better himself and better his world. His prayer changed lives. It is a lesson to be learned by every Christian: God will change people for the better if we open ourselves to God in prayer. |
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THOUGHT
Good
and gracious
God, your Son told us to always be open to you, telling you what we
need and want. Help us be stronger in our faith so that we can always
talk to you, accepting what happens as true answers to our prayer. Be
with us, we pray. What is your definition
of prayer?
PRAYER |
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©2007
Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America |
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