Asking in faith

One of the things that makes us Lutherans famous is the emphasis we place on how difficult it is to put faith in the Gospel with all our heart, even as Christians. Our unbelieving nature recoils; it refuses to believe that God has manifested such love for me and sends us new graces every day. Even the non-Christians here in the West, who chatter so much about God's love, don’t truly believe it. When they talk about God, prayer, or the afterlife, they immediately start explaining that they are actually good people—not perfect, of course, but good enough to get into heaven, or to have good "karma" for this life. Even they, deep down, want to take what they desire for themselves, rather than receiving it freely from God.

Sometimes, not being certain of God’s love almost becomes a virtue. "I hope God will give me this thing, but I don't know if I deserve it..." Inevitably, we fall back into the idea that, one way or another, if we want something, it is up to us to take it—either because God wants to see if we deserve it, or because we simply must earn it ourselves. Even when we step outside of more "traditional" theology, it is always *me*, with my works, trying to take center stage.

I experience this frequently myself. I have a soul very inclined toward worry. When I am not in control of a situation, I become nervous, because my gut believes (wrongly) that things are safer in my hands than in the hands of Christ. Since last year, I’ve made it something of a personal motto: **"Let God be God and man be man."** However, our "old man" has not yet recovered from the ancient deception of the serpent: *YOU SHALL BE LIKE GOD.* And so we deceive ourselves, telling ourselves we can hold the thread of fate in our own hands. And what can I say... How are things going in your hands? Do you know how to save yourselves, your plans, or your loved ones from death and misfortune? Are you so sure of yourselves that you know sin and corruption won’t consume your hopes?

> **"WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE EARTH?" (Job 38:4).**

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There is something deeply ironic in believing that things are safer in our hands than in God’s. We are the living definition of unreliable: God entrusted us with only one planet, and look what happened to it!

Anyway, today’s Gospel and Psalm command us to look upward, to the One who instead swore to be faithful even when we are not. **"TRULY, TRULY, I SAY TO YOU: WHATEVER YOU ASK THE FATHER IN MY NAME, HE WILL GIVE IT TO YOU."** Do we actually believe this promise? This promise that begins with "TRULY, TRULY" (*Amen, Amen* in Hebrew), one of Jesus' most solemn formulas. Are we ready to take God at His word?

The Gospel leaves us no escape; it doesn’t grant us the luxury of doubting and putting ourselves back at the center of the scene. **"ASK AND IT WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU" (Matthew 7:7).** How then can we go to the Father in prayer and say: "I ask, but I don’t know if it will be given. I knock, but I don’t know if it will be opened. I seek, but I don’t know if I will find"? Of course, sometimes we don't receive things *how* and *when* we ask for them (we will return to this shortly), but are we conscious of who our God is? Are we conscious of the love and attention with which He listens to our prayers?

Here lies the true test of faith: knowing that God receives our requests in love, without expecting some payment in return. **(The cross has already atoned for everything!)** Without measuring our sins to see if they are small enough to merit what we ask. God gives, and He gives only because of His immense, boundless, and eternal love. Perhaps you know this from experience: love loves to give to the beloved. When we give a gift to a loved one, the very fact of seeing them happy is our reward in itself. Those of you who are parents know this well: what is the point of staying up late when the child won't sleep, of sweating through work, school, and sports... if not for the love of the child? You don’t earn a salary or a vacation from it. You do it for the simple fact that you love your child.

Do we understand that it is the same with God? That when we kneel in prayer, we are not begrudgingly wresting concessions from the hand of God, but we are going toward a God who is more ready to give than we are to ask? This must be the foundation of the prayer of faith (even before asking why we don't always get what we want). We must know the God of love we are going to meet, and we can only know Him by looking at His Son. There is a verse composed by the English preacher Joseph Hart (1711–1768) that says:

> *"View Him prostrate in the garden / On the ground your Maker lies. / On the bloody tree behold Him: / Sinner, will this not suffice?"*

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Jesus commands us to ask in His name, and we ask in His name because He is our Mediator and the Foundation of our faith. When you go to prayer, dear brothers and sisters, look to Jesus. Look to Jesus as the Israelites looked at the serpent and survived; look to Jesus as Stephen saw Him, standing at the right hand of the Father to defend your cause. You do not hear Him, but when you go to the Father in prayer, the Son is at your side, praying with and for you. In fact, I dare say more: the Son lends you His own lips, so that when we pray in His name, we are not naked before the Father, but clothed in the holiness of Jesus.

> **"FOR ALL OF YOU WHO WERE BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST HAVE CLOTHED YOURSELVES WITH CHRIST" (Galatians 3:27).**

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Here lies the struggle of faith: seeing God in the wounds of Christ, grasping that revealed God, and commending all our petitions into His hands, with the confidence that they will be safe there. As long as faith grasps that God, we can face even the disappointment of an unanswered prayer. Because if we can trust in the fact that God is our loving Father, we can know that everything He does—even His "No"—will ultimately prove to be for our good.

> **"ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THOSE WHO LOVE GOD" (Romans 8:28).**

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This, I fear, is the only answer I have for unanswered prayers. Why does God sometimes not give us healing, deliverance, or peace? Sometimes I can look back at my past and thank God for saying "No" (if I am a Christian now, it is also thanks to a disappointment in my youth). Other times, however, I confess my frustration at the fact that some prayers seem to receive a "No" for no reason. And it is here that faith must struggle, **HOPING AGAINST HOPE**, that we have a loving God.

And when I say "faith," let’s be clear: I don't mean a blind gullibility. I don’t mean that asking questions is forbidden. If you need to refresh your memory, go read how often the Psalms ask, even insistently, "Why?", "How long?"... Faith does not forbid the struggle (on the contrary, it often encourages it!). Faith does not eliminate uncertainties. But it makes despair foolish. In approaching God in prayer, faith grasps Jesus, clings to the Intercessor, and through Him believes that the Father is now before us—on His throne, yet full of love—looking at us with a sweet smile, waiting to hear the requests of His little children. What oppresses you, brother? What oppresses you, sister? Family? Work? Your future? Go and tell the Father! Go in the name of Jesus and say: "Dear Father, I am worried about this thing. Please, help me!"

And if faith fails (as it often does, because we are dust), bring that to the Lord too! **"Lord, I BELIEVE; HELP MY UNBELIEF!"** I know it sounds crazy, but dare to believe that God’s promise is stronger and greater than your unbelief. If the Lord had to wait for us to fulfill our requests, not a single prayer would be answered. If He had to wait for someone who manages to deserve what they ask, or who has "enough faith" to ask it, we would still be stuck at the very first prayer (like a print queue on a computer...). But I repeat to you what I have said, brothers and sisters: God gives to those who ask because of who He is, what He has done, and what He has said. And unless you can change those things (and you can't), you dishonor Him if you think He does not listen to you in prayer.

Therefore, even as a congregation, as *Christus Victor*, we look around and we must resort to prayer. In a city ensnared by everything that is not the Gospel, where our congregation seems small and frail, we pray: "Father, Thy kingdom come!" We pray that His Gospel may be spread through us in this city. We pray that many may join us in singing the praises of the Lord. And we pray keeping this promise in mind: WHATEVER YOU ASK THE FATHER IN MY NAME, HE WILL GIVE IT TO YOU.