Perplexing question

Started by Heinrich, August 12, 2018, 09:20:36 PM

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Heinrich

If one is not of humility, how then does God hear his prayers asking for it?
Schaff Recht mir Gott und führe meine Sache gegen ein unheiliges Volk . . .   .                          
Lex Orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.
"Die Welt sucht nach Ehre, Ansehen, Reichtum, Vergnügen; die Heiligen aber suchen Demütigung, Verachtung, Armut, Abtötung und Buße." --Ausschnitt von der Geschichte des Lebens St. Bennos.

Daniel

#1
I'm not sure I understand what you're asking.

God hears all prayers.

But the very desire for humility is a good which (like all goods) comes from God. Thus the man cannot begin to ask God for humility unless God first give that man the desire for humility. The man, having received the desire, then asks for humility. And God might or might not give it to him.

John Lamb

Yes, to even ask for humility presupposes a certain level of humility, from which one can ask for an even deeper level of it.
To pray at all presumes a certain degree of humility, insofar as it's a confession that you are in need of help.
"Let all bitterness and animosity and indignation and defamation be removed from you, together with every evil. And become helpfully kind to one another, inwardly compassionate, forgiving among yourselves, just as God also graciously forgave you in the Anointed." – St. Paul