No one else to turn to except God alone


Thursday of the 1st week of Lent

Matthew 7:7-12

"I have no one else to turn to except you alone."

Esther's prayer is the prayer of the poor.  But for us who have the resources, we can turn to all others.  God is for the last causes.

This is the theme for today's gospel: "Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you."  We don't ask fully, because we have other things. But only the prayer of the poor is heard rightly by God.  For they have no one else to turn to except him alone. 

When we pray, we turn to God with all our might.  God wants us to be totally dependent on him for all our needs.  This is the point: everything comes from God.  We focus on wanting the gifts; but we forget God. This is the error.  We focus on the things and not on God.

Second, our strength also comes from God.  The disposition God wants is not a totally helpless disposition; only the realization that even our strength and everything we have comes from God and should be used and maximized; not stored to be used for selfish ends.  If we use whatever resources we have for noble causes, tomorrow they may bear fruit.  But the fact still remains: it is God who owns everything and we are his stewards.  And in doing so, we are actually realizing what we are praying for.

How true is the saying: pray as if everything depended on God; but when you act, act as if everything depended on yourself."  This is true only on the assumption that God owns everything we have and we have to use all resources to give life to others and glorify God, not ourselves.

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