Please join Pastor Will this coming Sunday,October 25, 2026 as he preaches: Growing in the Life of Faith : A Midnight Knock, part 4. Psalm 25:1–10; Matthew 7:1–11

Ask and it will be given to you; search and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. If your child asks you for a piece of bread, you would not give a stone or, worse yet, if she asks for fish you would not give a snake. So God will give good things if you ask.” At face value , this text seems to suggest that if we ask persistently enough, we will get what we are asking for. But a closer look suggests other wise . Jesus didn’t believe in a God who gives everything we pray for . He did not believe in a God who fulfills every request. For example, on the night of his betrayal and arrest, Jesus went to a garden to pray, and he asked God to deliver him from what was about to happen. God didn’t. From the cross he cried out, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” Every parent knows that you cannot and should not give a child everything he or she asks for. Instead of getting everything we pray for , Jesus taught his followers that when the situation is “knocking at the door in the middle of the night,” God will be there with whatever we most need—which is someone to be there. God himself will be there. Richard Rohr defines prayer not as a transactional effort to change God’s mind or bargain for outcomes, but as a transformative practice that changes the person who prays. Rev Dr. Willy L Mafuta, Senior Pastor, Hopewell United Methodist Church, Hopewell, NJ 08525 www.hopewellmethodist.org