Thursday, February 02, 2006

Simplicity in Prayer

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." (John 2: 1-3)
I've been thinking about this line all day today and decided that I should probably write about it. Note that what I'm about to say is not some newfound revelation but rather something given to me at a retreat about four years ago that I thought was fascinating and has helped me in my prayer life.

When Mary was in Cana and they started to run out of wine, she approached Jesus and said, "They have no wine."

What can we learn from this?

Before I answer that, I know that Catholics and Protestants differ on our views of Mary (and I really don't want to argue about that) however, I think there's a lesson for all of us in this text. I think one thing that we can all agree on, however, is that Mary knew and loved her Son as any mother knows and loves her son.

When she approaches Him, all she says is, "They have no wine." At that point, Jesus knew exactly what she was asking Him and responded.

This is a great lesson on how we should pray. We really need to keep it simple when we approach Him. Why? Because He already knows what you're going to ask and He knows what you want. The words just get in the way.

We don't need long wordy prayers to God. Just nice short simple ones. If your child is sick, in prayer, just say, "Lord, my child is sick."

He knows what you want and will answer your prayer.

3 comments:

Gordon said...

Good thought, Theden. I believe that prayer is more important to us than it is to God. You are right, God does know our needs before we pray. But for us to cast our cares upon the Lord is to exercise our faith, thus making us stronger.

Anonymous said...

Dennis, first, thanks for stopping by my blog and for your comment.

Second, the first thing I thought of regarding Mary's reaction was that she went straight to Jesus to fix her problem - straight to God. She didn't run to her best friend or spouse to "vent", she just took it straight to the one who could make a difference.

Thanks for your thoughts!

TheDen said...

Hi Janna,

Thanks for the comments. I guess when I reflect on this, I think of myself more like the lowly servants who run out of wine then I do Mary (she is a model for simple prayer though). While I don't disagree with you that we can go directly to Jesus for help, these servants didn't go to Him. They went to Mary who interceded for them. Can a person do this today? Absolutely. If you have a problem and ask her for help, she will go straight to Jesus to fix the problem. HOWEVER, her direction for us is the same as the servants. "Do whatever He tells you."

This doesn't mean you don't go directly to Jesus. Pray to Him as often as possible with every breath that you take. I'm just saying that it is acceptable (scripturally) to ask her for help too. She will always point you directly to Him.

Thanks so much for reading and commenting. If you don't agree, I understand. What's most important is our love of the Lord.