Day 349: Temptation, Trust, and Prayer (2732-2737)

• It’s Day 349!!

• FACING TEMPTATION IN PRAYER

• The big question that comes up in our hearts is, what good does it do to pray?

• We have to battle to gain humility, trust, and perseverance

• FILIAL TRUST

• WHY DO WE COMPLAIN OF NOT BEING HEARD?

• Paragraph 2735 says, “In the first place, we ought to be astonished by this fact: when we praise God or give him thanks for his benefits in general, we are not particularly concerned whether or not our prayer is acceptable to him. On the other hand, we demand to see the results of our petitions. What is the image of God that motivates our prayer: an instrument to be used? Or the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?”

• How is prayer efficacious?

• How does prayer do anything?

• Are we convinced that we do not know how to pray as we ought?

• We need to have the humility and trust to hear the answers to these questions

• “Lord, I know you are calling me to humility. I know you are calling me to trusting in you. I know you are calling me to deeper perseverance. This is good, Lord. You are letting me know that I am not crazy to ask these questions.”

• These questions are a normal and natural part of the supernatural life

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you. We thank you for moving first. We thank you for initiating prayer in our lives. We ask you to help us to say yes. We do not know how to pray as we ought. Send your Holy Spirit into our lives so that we can become pray-ers, so we can have hearts that pray in the best possible way with that trust and with that perseverance and with that humility. Lord God, this life is painful. This life has so many challenges. We ask that you help us to trust in the midst of pain. Help us to persevere in the midst of challenge. And help us to be humble, so that we allow you to teach us who it is you are and how it is you are calling us to pray. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• Paragraph 2732 says, “The most common yet most hidden temptation is our lack of faith. It expresses itself less by declared incredulity than by our actual preferences. When we begin to pray, a thousand labors or cares thought to be urgent vie for priority; once again, it is the moment of truth for the heart: what is its real love? Sometimes we turn to the Lord as a last resort, but do we really believe he is? Sometimes we enlist the Lord as an ally, but our hearts remain presumptuous. In each case, our lack of faith reveals that we do not yet share in the disposition of a humble heart: ‘Apart from me, you can do nothing.’”

• There is this term “practical atheist” coined by St. John Paul II maybe, Fr. Mike doesn’t remember

• Only 10% of the population of the USA are true atheists

• “I believe that God does not exist”

• BUT…

• A lot of us are practical atheists

• If you look at how we live and not just what we profess to believe, for all intents and purposes we are atheists

• We can believe in all the tenets of the faith

• But if you look at the rest of our day or week, we do not live as if we believe God exists

• We are not living as Jesus is Lord

• We are not living as if Jesus has poured out His Holy Spirit

• We are not living as if God has a plan for our lives

• So for all intents and purposes, we are practical atheists

• Does God get our time?

• OR… 

• Do we just live like the rest of the world?

• Am I a Christian?

• OR…

• Am I a practical atheist where I profess faith in Jesus, but I live as if He doesn’t really exist?

• Paragraph 2733 says, “Another temptation, to which presumption opens the gate, is acedia. The spiritual writers understand by this a form of depression due to lax ascetical practice, decreasing vigilance, carelessness of the heart. ‘The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ The greater the height, the harder the fall. Painful as discouragement is, it is the reverse of presumption. The humble are not surprised by their distress; it leads them to trust more, to hold fast in constancy.”

• Fr. Mike recommends the book ACEDIA, THE NOONDAY DEVIL

• Acedia is when I would rather be somewhere else, doing something else

• If this is where the Lord wants me to be, that’s nice

• But it’s difficult so therefore, I would rather be somewhere else doing something else

• Acedia is the lack of joy in doing the Lord’s will in this moment and in this place

• Acedia is sorrow at having to do God’s will in this moment and in this place

• Paragraph 2734 says, “Filial trust is tested-it proves itself-in tribulation. The principal difficulty concerns the prayer of petition, for oneself or for others in intercession. Some even stop praying because they think their petition is not heard. Here two questions should be asked: Why do we think our petition has not been heard? How is our prayer heard, how is it ‘efficacious’?”

•  What we mean by testing is ordered to proving itself or to refine

• God is not testing us to see if we fail

• God is testing us to refine us

• That is what God is doing when He allows us to go through these temptations and tests

• God refines us in tribulation

• Paragraph 2735 says, “In the first place, we ought to be astonished by this fact: when we praise God or give him thanks for his benefits in general, we are not particularly concerned whether or not our prayer is acceptable to him. On the other hand, we demand to see the results of our petitions. What is the image of God that motivates our prayer: an instrument to be used? Or the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?”

• How often is it the case that if we want to give God thanks, we are like, “Oh yeah, by the way God, thank you.”?

• Or when we praise God, “Oh by the way, God, here is some praise for you”?

• We don’t necessarily pause and say, “God, would you please accept my thanks?”

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike talk about his daily prayers in the Catechism in a Year…

• The temptation of our hearts is to complain about not being heard

• We want God to hear our thanks and praise

• We want God to be glorified just as much as we want Him to hear our prayers of petition

• But our hearts are selfish

• Our hearts want what we want

• So we have to train ourselves in our prayer to beg God to hear us

• We complain about not being heard by God because our image of God is a divine ATM or a genie in a bottle

• If He doesn’t help, we think he’s a bad genie

• God is our Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ

• God is OUR FATHER

• Paragraph 2736 says, “Are we convinced that ‘we do not know how to pray as we ought’? Are we asking God for ‘what is good for us’? Our Father knows what we need before we ask him, but he awaits our petition because the dignity of his children lies in their freedom. We must pray, then, with his Spirit of freedom, to be able truly to know what he wants.”

• What is my image of God?

• Is He my Father?

• OR…

• Is He an instrument for me to use?

• Am I really convinced that I do not know how to pray as I ought?

• Paragraph 2737 says, “‘You ask and you do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.’ If we ask with a divided heart, we are ‘adulterers’; God cannot answer us, for he desires our well-being, our life. ‘Or do you suppose that it is in vain that the scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit which he has made to dwell in us?”’ That our God is ‘jealous’ for us is the sign of how true his love is. If we enter into the desire of his Spirit, we shall be heard. Do not be troubled if you do not immediately receive from God what you ask him; for he desires to do something even greater for you while you cling to him in prayer. God wills that our desires should be exercised in prayer, that we may be able to receive what he is prepared to give.”

• We have a divided heart and we give part of our heart to something else or someone else and God is jealous of that

• That is a sign of how true His love is

• If God was indifferent to you giving your heart to any other false god, then that would reveal to us that He doesn’t really love us that much

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike tell us about Evagrius Ponticus…

• Do you trust God?

• Do you trust Him enough to know that whatever you are going through is what you need to go through?

• Whatever you are going through, if you let Him, He is using you for your salvation and for the salvation of the people around you?

• Trust is the key

• If you know that God loves you, then ok here you are in prayer

• Your prayer is always heard according to His will

• God is good and we trust Him

• We may still be desperate for a result or outcome and we still beg God for it, but we know that He is good and we can trust Him

• God is jealous of our heart and we can trust Him

• God loves the people we pray for even more than we love them

• So we can trust Him

• If there is anything that we need when it comes to a life of prayer, it is a heart of trust

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT…