Persistence in prayer is encouraged by Jesus and wins the attention of God when Abraham intercedes for Sodom. The life of the baptized—to be rooted and built up in Christ Jesus—is to be nurtured with prayer. God hears and answers prayer and so strengthens God’s own. “When I called, you answered me; you increased my strength within me.” This Sunday’s readings incorporate several themes around prayer: negotiation, commands, persistence, and expectation. And surrounding all these themes is a bigger theme: boldness. Abraham is bold in speaking with God, so bold in fact that he not only negotiates with the Almighty, the Almighty willingly grants his request. The disciples, too, speak with boldness. They don’t ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, they tell him to teach them how to pray. Their imperative sets up a pattern of imperatives in the Lord’s Prayer that we “are bold to pray as Jesus taught” still 2000 year later. We are able to ask, search, and knock, knowing that the Lord says we will receive what we ask for. Join us on Sunday as TLLC Visitation Pastor Armin Steege reminds us that God hears and responds to our prayers.
image: Blessed Are the Meek by Paula Wiggins. Copyright © Paula Wiggins. All rights reserved. Used by permission of the artist.