Ask...go on ask

If I'm honest I really don't pray like I think my prayers will be answered. Honestly.

If you asked me why I pray...well...I would talk a lot about adoration, about thanksgiving, I might even refer to prayers of relinquishment and prayers for internal, individual strength...and I do, in fact, have a little 'shopping list' in my prayer book, which prompts me to pray for my wife, my son (yes! I do even need to be reminded of this), my own needs, other people, events that are coming up, and work.

But as I consider the meaning of Rogation Days I am perplexed: when I ask for things from God, do I expect my prayers to be answered?

When I ask God to heal a friend's marriage,
or when I ask God to provide a buyer for my house,
or when I ask God to be with my non-Christian family...

...do I expect God to answer this?

More generally, I feel it is important God knows my mind, that I exhibit faithfulness and trust in his sovereignty, but do I believe the verses we're asked to read in Luke:

"So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." (Luke 11:9f. NRSV)

It feels like a pretty foundational question, really...

There is so much vagueness in our prayers, so much 'if it be your will' hand-wringing, that I worry we have lost the confidence to, persistently (which is as much about relationship as petitioning) pray.

On Rogation day we pray for the land, for commerce and industry, for the environment and creation. We don't have the same panicked relationship with God our ancestors may have done who saw weather as a sign of divine blessing. Have we lost some connection with our circumstances that has dulled our sense of dependence. For it is not merely our prayers that are ineffective if not in accord with God's will, but our very lives:

"Abide in me...because apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5)

As we look to a future that is one of ordination and priesthood, and as we make practical arrangements for the move away from Bradford, the question isn't so much 'will God answer my prayers?' (although I hope he will), but 'will I persist in my relationship with God, will I abide, will I knock, seek and ask?'