Faith guides us to do God’s will

By MARCO ANTONIO CARRASCO

Many of us who have prayed, at times feel like God hears our prayers but does not listen attentively because we do not receive quite what we wanted or expected.  Why is this?
Sometimes we find ourselves praying to God for the day to go smoothly, but that just does not happen at times.   We find ourselves stuck in traffic, tired, sleepy and with a lot of work.  Why is this?
What is it that we do wrong when we pray?  I think we must start with this question: How do we ask God?  Now reading through Holy Scripture, many people ask Jesus Christ for many things.  In these situations throughout the Gospels there is one thing Jesus Christ looks for when somebody asks him for something, and that is Faith.
Faith is what guides us to do God’s will.  When we ask God we ask with faith.  This brings to mind when Jesus refutes his disciples, telling them to let the Children Come, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.  We must be like Children.  A child trusts. A child confidently believes in his father or mother.
I remember when I was six or seven years old, I really enjoyed watching wrestling on TV.  I was a great fan and even acted like some of the wrestling characters around the house.  Every time I would go with my mother to Wal-Mart I would rush straight to the toy section and look for wrestling action figures, grab one and run to my mom.  I would do this every time I would accompany her to Wal-Mart.
I reached her and with great joy and a big smile I asked her, “Please Mom, please buy this for me, please!”  At first she said no, knowing that I had several action figures already, but I persisted and continued asking joyfully and smiling, “Please, Mom, please buy this for me.”  She looked at how joyful and happy I was asking her for such a thing, not to mention I think at that time I was missing my front teeth.  “Okay, I’ll buy it for you,” she replied.
Looking back at this situation I realized that if I would have gone up to her and started to demand the toy or get grumpy because she had said no the first time she would have not bought  me the action figure.
This is how it is in prayer; we must trust God and be confident enough to know that whatever we ask of God we will receive.  We must be joyful and smile at him once in a while for God Himself is also a Happy and Joyful God who looks at us tenderly and with love when we trust and have confidence in Him.
Once we ask with trust and confidence we give a sign of faith in God, which enables us to ask, not necessarily for a toy but for what is good for ourselves and others.