Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him. Matt 6:8

God’s hearing and answering prayer imply no change of character -no change in his principles of action. Indeed, if you ask why He ever answers prayer at all, the answer must be, because He is unchangeable. Prayer brings the suppliant into new relations to God's kingdom; and to meet these new relations, God's unchangeable principles require him to change the course of his administration. He answers prayer because he is unchangeably benevolent. It is not because His benevolence changes, but because it does not change, that He answers prayer.

I found my faith time and again hung in a kind of skeptical suspension. Wary, confused, questioning. I see that, despite all the devotional intimacies, Jesus grew more remote. He became an object of scrutiny. Disturbing revaluation. =S Yet I am so drawn to Jesus, irresistibly, because He positioned Himself as the dividing point of life, my life. Sometimes I accept Jesus’ audacious claim without question. Sometimes, I confess, I wonder what difference it should make to my life that a man lived a thousand years ago. Can I resolve this inner tension between doubter and lover? I learned the beautitudes only to find self unable to make sense of it. Let alone live by them. So long, sweet Jesus?

posted by Graciana@Home at 3:04 pm