DEVOTION//Mud-pie prayers

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; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (Jesus, Matthew 7:7-11).

Carte Blanche

Carte Blanche. Unconditional authority; full discretionary power.

When God made promises about our prayers, he gave us carte blanche. Ask; it’s yours. Seek; you’ll find it. Knock; the door opens.

Our human fathers demonstrated that they knew how to give in abundance. How much more, our Savior asks, won’t our Father in heaven — the Father who sent his Son to pay for our full forgiveness — respond to our prayers in super-abundance?

Of course, this Father of infinite love would never agree to a request from us that he knows would cause us harm. So it might seem like he doesn’t always answer our prayers. But that’s only our uninformed perception talking. A friend of mine says, “Our Father will give us whatever we ask for; unless he has something even better to give us.

Pray big prayers

The creator and ruler of the universe invites us to pray. Big prayers. Huge prayers. Prayers whose answers would amaze us. Pray, he promises, and I will answer those prayers.

But, in spite of God’s generous invitation, our prayers — certainly my prayers — lack evidence that we trust him to open closed doors when we knock. Our prayers can testify that we are satisfied to ask for trinkets when our Father offers us crown jewels.

C.S. Lewis chides, If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. [We are] like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

God promises nothing in jest. Look to Good Friday’s cross. View the promise of infinite proportion he kept there. Know that he must also abide by his lesser promises about prayer.

So pray. Pray boldly. Pray wild prayers for God’s grace to be unleashed. Then stand back to await his answers.