WE DON'T KNOW WHAT TO ASK
If Jesus came to you and asked, "What do you want me to do to you?", Would you know how to respond? He asked this question to a blind man, "sitting by the wayside" near the city of Jericho, who promptly replied, "Lord, I want to see" (Luke 18:40).
One who reads this account of Luke (18.35-43) may find this question of Jesus strange because he considers the blind man's answer to be obvious. However, this question does not seem so simple. It deals with the fact that we do not know what to ask of God because we do not know ourselves.
This man's sole request to Jesus shows that he knew himself, his real condition and his true need. Of course, his needs should be many because of his physical problem. However, he only made one request. For what reason?
Plunged in the darkness of his infirmity, he could look to himself and realize that only his healing would lead him to a state of inner peace and full satisfaction of his other needs.
Jesus once said, "Ask and it will be given to you ..." (Matthew 7.7). But do we know ourselves to know what we need and what we should ask God in prayer? Not everyone has the experience of know himself. We are very connected to the world and its rush. We look at many things, but little at ourselves.
We are immersed in work, in activism and sometimes we live an unreal image of ourselves before others. Therefore, our requests do not always spring from our needs, but from our desires.
James Houston, in his book Praying With God, wrote: "Our first prayer simply has to say to God: Oh, God, help me pray because I do not know how to pray for myself"[1]. This prayer reveals that we do not know how to pray for not knowing our deepest needs.
We think praying is asking God for things. But our huge order list shows that we do not know what we really want, what we truly need. Of course, important needs arise in our lives and we realize them. But, in general, we pray the trivial and frivolities arising from our spiritual blindness.
If we look, however, inwardly, we will note relevant need, such as God himself. We need God, for though we are his children, we often find ourselves weakened by sin in us.
The Apostle Paul, writing to the Romans, said: "...although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me "(7.22,23).
The Fall made us a stranger to ourselves. We lose ourselves on the moment we separate from God in the Adamic decision[2]. Therefore, we do not know ourselves fully and as consequence we do not know how to pray.
The Apostle Paul said this: "we do not know how to pray." But then, in the same context, he will say that the Spirit helps us in this weakness. He “intercedes for us through wordless groans” (Romans 8:26).
Like that blind man from Jericho, we need to discern our real needs. He knew his most important physical need. But there was another need that he did not know: his sinful condition. So, when his eyes opened, the first thing he saw was the carpenter of Nazareth, that is, God himself incarnate.
We need many material things, but our greatest need is God. Prayer is for this: a life of communion with the Lord. In prayer, if we take our eyes off ourselves, off our needs, off our long list of requests, we will see God. Consequently, we will also see ourselves, our real condition as sinners, because the presence of God strips us naked and reveals us completely.
(From my ebook, amazon.com.br, LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY - AN ESSAY ON THE CENTRALITY OF GOD IN PRAYER)
Antônio Maia – M. Div.
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