Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time (July 23, 2018): Do you need proof that God is helping you?

“Jesus, we want to see a sign from you.”

The scribes and Pharisees in today’s first reading wanted proof that God’s power was at work in their world. We want it, too. We ask God to do something and then start looking for evidence that our prayers are being answered. When we intercede for others, we hope that soon we’ll hear good news from them. Our prayer requests are usually accompanied by a desire for proof that God has heard us and cares and is doing something to make life better.

But Jesus said, “An evil and unfaithful age is eager for a sign!” He’s not implying that it’s a sin to want signs. Often, God does give us signs; it’s one of the ways he communicates his will to us. The sin occurs when we distrust him, eager for a sign that would give proof that he loves us and cares — instead of trusting that his goodness and compassion are constant and everlasting.

How many times do we entrust a person or situation over to God and then nothing happens? The problem often seems to get worse, right? Remember this: God never ignores us nor abandons us. The answer to prayer is usually a process. Sadly, because people’s free wills are involved, the process might take years.

While we wait, God invites us to trust him more. He wants us to choose to remember that he does truly care and that he is turning everything into an ultimate good in which we — and others — will benefit. Jesus taught me to think of it this way: Everything is pregnant with God’s activity. It’s impossible for God to be inactive. Some answers to prayer require a lot of incubation time, slowly growing within the womb of God’s love and mercy. And always — always — a new blessing is born from it. Sometimes, it might even be twins! Or triplets!! Or more!!!

The only proof we need that God’s goodness and compassion are constantly making a difference is that Jesus already gave his entire being to us: God became human and died for us. Christ’s resurrection is proof that God has the power and the desire to redeem even the worst situations (the sign of Jonah).

When you ask God for help and then don’t see evidence that anything has changed for the better, does your asking become more intense? Do you start begging and pleading? Yeah, I do too. And when God still doesn’t provide proof, we get frustrated and worried, and then we get angry.

However, we’re not really angry at God. We’re angry at a limited idea of who God is. The “God” we’re mad at is a false god, an incomplete god, a distorted image of the true God.

We need to learn more about who God really is. If Jesus was willing to suffer so painfully and die for us, will he not do everything else that we need from him? If the Father loves us so much that he resurrected Jesus from death so that we could go with him to heaven, will he not also give us every blessing that we need here on earth?

Think of how you feel when you’re pleading with God. This is how God feels, too! Look at today’s first reading. Here, God is the one who’s doing the begging. What is he yearning to receive from us? Only that we do what is right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with him. Will you answer his prayer today?

Today’s Prayer:

Lord Jesus, grant me the grace to discover Your saving presence throughout all my life and to look for You above everything. Amen.