Tuesday, February 28, 2023

EMPTY PHRASES IN PRAYER

Meditation for Tuesday of the First Week of Lent
(Is 55:10-11; Mt 6:7-15)

This Lenten season, we are expected to be more prayerful. Jesus intervenes to teach us how to pray so that God will hear our prayers. He warns against the wrong approach to prayer: “In praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” God Himself does not speak empty phrases; how can man then offer to Him empty phrases?

 

The prophet Isaiah announces that as the rain and snow water the earth, giving seed to the Sower and bread to the eater, so shall the word of God go forth; it shall not return empty, but it shall accomplish that which it was intended, and prosper in the thing for which it was sent. Think about how the word of God is active and alive (Heb 4:12), bearing fruit in the heart of the believer and inspiring him to pray. We see how the word of God is our anchor in prayer as Jesus leads the way and teaches how to pray. Thus, in his prayer, the man of faith returns to God the fruit of what he had received, i.e., glory and adoration.

 

Prayer becomes empty when it has no roots in the word of God.

Prayer becomes empty when it is not backed up by faith.

Prayer becomes empty when we wish to INFORM God about our needs.

Prayer becomes empty when we turn it into argument to CONVINCE God to answer us.

These and many more are summed up into EMPTY PHRASES, for they go to God without returning back to Him glory and adoration. So, in the prayer Jesus taught us, we adore and glorify God, saying, “Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed by thy name…” As the word of God has live in itself and does not return to God empty, so does the prayers we offer to God does not return to us empty, but they bring back to us divine intervention and answers to our needs. May God continue to hear our prayers this Lent. Amen.

 


Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R

Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church,

Tedi-Muwo, Ojo, Lagos.

Tuesday February 28th, 2023.

www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

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