Confidence in prayer

We had an excellent retreat this past Saturday. It was a one-day retreat here at the parish. The goal of a retreat is to get away from the noise of the world to hear God in silence. The first Book of Kings (19:12) depicts this with God speaking to Elijah in a whisper. We gave people quiet time to be with the Lord and hopefully hear Him.

One of the points I made in my talks on prayer was to have confidence. I said that it was one of the biggest points of the day. Confidence in God is a trademark of the saints. One of the most apparent ways this plays out is in temptation; saints snub temptation because they are confident that God’s ways are better. But confidence in prayer is also very significant and can be a real turning point for people in their faith.

Confidence in prayer means that a person believes that he (or she) is called by God to pray; takes himself seriously as a pray-er; trusts that his prayer(s) is right and just; and is not afraid to petition God and to be honest with Him. Just like anything else, the more we pray, the more confident we become. Confidence in prayer doesn’t mean cockiness; we don’t expect that God will answer “yes” to all of our prayers like Bruce Almighty. But, we do have great confidence that He will hear all of our prayers and give us an answer that is His Will.