(8th March): Isaiah 55.10-11; Psalm 33; Matthew 6.7-15
We are, most of the time at least, very poor diagnosticians of our needs. When we are children we ask for chocolate, but a wise and provident mother provides us with some carrot sticks instead. Our prayers should not be consumed with naming the things we think God may have overlooked, something like placing a grocery order and awaiting its delivery. Rather, our prayer time should be a time of bringing our demands and desires into harmony with God’s perfect will for us. Like any good conversation, our prayer should contain less talking and more listening. God wills to do for us and through us more and better things than we can ask for or imagine [Ephesians 3.20]; in our prayers we ask that his imagination should replace our own, that his vision of what we may become will not meet resistance from us but calm and trustful acceptance that he knows both our needs and our ignorance in asking. In his perfect purpose we shall find peace and daily satisfaction.