Should we wait for a sign that the Lord heard our prayer?

Should we wait for a sign that the Lord heard our prayer?

If we have enough faith it should not be necessary to look for a Fed-Ex or USPS to drop a line that God heard our request and is sending a notice to ease our anxiety.

Where does prayer come from?  Whether prayer is expressed in words or gestures, it is the whole man who prays.  But in naming the source of prayer, Scripture speaks sometimes of the soul or the spirit, but most often of the heart (more than a thousand times).  According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays.  If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain.  (CCC 2562).

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 heart remains 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.”  (CCC2732).

The revelation of prayer in the economy of salvation teaches us that faith rests on God’s action in history.  Our filial trust is enkindled by his supreme act: the Passion and Resurrection of his Son.  Christian prayer is cooperation with his providence, his plan of love for men.  (CCC 2738).

Prayer presupposes an effort, a fight against ourselves and the wiles of the Tempter.  The battle of prayer is inseparable from the necessary “spiritual battle” to act habitually according to the Spirit of Christ: we pray as we live, because we live as we pray.  (CCC 2752).

How important it is for us to be in constant prayer, it is the most efficacious manner of having a conversation with God.  Do not ever think that mortals cannot speak with God and should always seek the opportunity to find a reason to have a dialogue with our creator.  God never intended to be the deity that is so far away from us that we need an appointment to have only a moment with him.  There is no office and a secretary scheduling our time with God.  Need an answer to a crisis, or just to speak with God, open your heart and let the words issue forth.  Just remember to let God do the talking; he always has a solution even if it might be a little less that we expected.  He will not send a message that is wrong for us.  His love is more perfect than that.

Ralph B. Hathaway