From September 2 to November 25 we will be writing reflections based on the scripture passage, Luke 11:1-13 and its theme of Prayer. We will take one verse per week and invite you to join us in first meditating and digesting this passage slowly using lectio divina and then read the reflection. Our writers will be sharing testimony of how this scripture has impacted their lives personally.
Listen:
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Luke 11:9)
Reflect:
I remember a particularly embarrassing moment several years ago, when my son and I had to go to Marseille to get our Austrian passports renewed. We were running late for our appointment and had to run on foot through the city. In my experience, embassies are the best kept secrets in the world and we had to look for a while before we finally found a tiny double headed eagle (symbol for Austria) over an immense old oak door. The two of us pushed hard on the heavy door and sprinted up several flights of stairs only to find ourselves in front of another oak door, this time locked with no one answering the bell.
I was so stressed because I thought we had missed the appointment and that we had come all this way for nothing. As a last attempt to get in, I dropped to my knees next to my bag, took out all the papers to find a telephone number and my phone. Then I heard the buzzing sound of the door opener. In total desperation and still on my knees, with all my strength I threw my entire body weight against the door! The massive door swung open like a screen door and landed heavily against the coffee table inside. Everyone working there saw this distraught woman on her knees in the embassy.
When we think of God’s plan for our lives, we sometimes feel the same kind of distress that I felt that day in Marseille. What if I can’t open the door that God wants me to walk through? But God tells us to set our intentions and move toward the good in our lives that He has prepared for us. Asking Him is just the beginning.
In today’s teaching on prayer, Jesus is reassuring us that what is for us won’t miss us. Of course, we need to put effort and discipline into finding it. But Jesus clearly invites us to seek and knock. To some degree we get what we want. Maybe not all we want but what we most deeply desire ends up finding its way to us.
Prayer of Response:
God, help me to know what I truly desire. Give me the courage to ask boldly, the wisdom to seek faithfully, and the persistence to knock even when the way is uncertain. Teach me to trust that the doors you open lead to the good you have for me.
Questions to Ponder:
• What do I truly desire and why?
• What is one small step I can take today to move toward it?
• Where do I need to keep knocking, even if the door hasn’t opened yet?
Breath Prayers:
Join us in praying breath prayers each day. We invite you to write your own as well.
Inhale (Breathe in): God, my desire,
Exhale (Breathe out): open the door of my heart to you. (Repeat)
Submitted by: Gudrun Reeves
Gudrun Reeves is Austrian and lives and works with her Texan husband in Champfleuri, a Christian Retreat center in the French Alpes. She has been part of Lifesprings since it’s beginnings in France and she cannot (or doesn’t want to) imagine what life would be like without this lovely community of God-fearing women.