O Lord, hear my prayer.
O Lord, hear my prayer.

When I call, answer me.

O Lord, hear my prayer.
O Lord, hear my prayer.

Come and listen to me.

 

When Abraham turns to the Lord in prayer,
he speaks to God like a merchant making a deal.

He barters with God,
bringing down the price
until he’s ready to make a final deal.

 

Abraham knows God so well
that he’s not afraid to talk to God
like he would talk to anyone else.

Let’s make a deal.
Let’s come to a neighborly agreement,
something we both can live with.

 

O Lord, hear my prayer.
O Lord, hear my prayer.

When I call, answer me.

 

When Jesus teaches his disciple how to pray,
he begins by addressing God in a very familiar way.

He doesn’t actually begin “Our Father.”

He begins with the Aramaic word, “Abba,”

which might more accurately be translated “Papa” or “Daddy.”

 

I don’t know about your family,
but in my family we never called our father, “Father.”

We refused to buy Father’s Day cards or birthday cards
unless they were addressed to Dad.

“Father,” just seemed too formal,
and Jesus wanted us to be so closely related to God
that we could call him “Papa” or “Dad.”

Somewhere along the way
translators thought that that was just too familiar.

They wanted us to address God in a more formal way,
and so we pray, “Our Father.”

 

O Lord, hear my prayer.
O Lord, hear my prayer.

Come and listen to me.

 

Jesus also tells his disciples that God is like a neighbor,
a friend we can call on
even in the middle of the night.

We can bother God with our petty needs
any time of the day or night,
and if at first, it seems like God will not answer us,
we should simple keep pestering God until our prayers are answered.

Eventually God will give up
and give us what we truly need.

 

O Lord, hear my prayer.
O Lord, hear my prayer.

When I call, answer me.

 

Jesus continues his instructions on prayer,
“Ask,… seek,… knock….”

It never hurts to ask.

It’s never too difficult to seek what we need.

It’s never too much trouble to keep on knocking
even when it seems like no one is listening.

Jesus says, “Ask and you will receive;”

“Seek and you will find;”

“Knock and the door will be opened.”

 

I wish I could tell you that you’ll always receive what you ask for,
or that you’ll always find what you’re looking for,
or that when the door opens, what you’ll see is what you wanted to see.
But I can tell you that God will never give you
something that makes the situation worse.

 

O Lord, hear my prayer.
O Lord, hear my prayer.

Come and listen to me.

 

Almost every assignment I was ever given
was not something I asked for.
I went to places I didn’t want to go.
I was given ministries that I didn’t feel prepared for.
Yet I know that doors were opened to me
that I never expected
and that led to blessings beyond my wildest imagination.
God didn’t always give me what I wanted,
but God never gave me a snake when I asked for a fish
or a scorpion when I asked for an egg.

 

O Lord, hear my prayer.
O Lord, hear my prayer.

When I call, answer me.

 

For years I prayed that my foot would be healed,
and I never imagined what God had in store for me
when it was amputated and I got a prosthetic leg.

But even then I was blessed by God
who sent me to just the right people
to help me along the way.
While I can’t do everything I wished I could do,
I can do far more then I ever thought possible
for a man with only one and a half legs.

 

God did not answer my prayers they way I had hoped,
but God was with me through it all,
and I even found out that there are some benefits to being handicapped.
When I was in Europe earlier this month,
I got into museums for free.

 

O Lord, hear my prayer.
O Lord, hear my prayer.

Come and listen to me.

 

So, today, I invite you to pray like Abraham
who wasn’t afraid to barter with God,
to make a deal with the Almighty One.

 

Today, I invite you to prayer like Jesus taught us,
to a God who is not only Father, but is also Papa or Dad.

 

Today, I invite you to pray
knowing that God always listens,
always hears what we ask for,
knows what we’re seeking,
and will open doors we never expected.

 

Today, I invite you to pray
like someone who knows
that whatever God ends up giving us
will always be a blessing.

 

 

O Lord, hear our prayers.
O Lord, hear our prayer.

When we call, answer us.

O Lord, hear our prayers.
O Lord, hear our prayers.

Come and listen to us.