Do you need proof that God is helping you?

Good News Reflection
Monday of the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time
July 19, 2010
Today's Readings:
Micah 6:1-4, 6-8
Ps 50:5-6,8-9,16-17,21,23
Matt 12:38-42
http://www.usccb.org/nab/071910.shtml
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/10_07_19.mp3
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 Gospel 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 in his goodness and compassion.
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. 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.
The only proof we need of God's love is that Jesus died for us. The only proof we need that God has the power and the desire to redeem even the worst situations of our lives is the resurrection of Jesus. This is what Jesus meant when he referred to 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 often feel that way, too. And when God still doesn't provide proof, we get frustrated, and then we get angry.
However, we're not really angry at God. What we're angry at is our 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. We need to look at the crucifix and recall what he did for us. 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?
© 2010 by Terry A. Modica
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