Let Thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of Thy humble servants: and, that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please Thee; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

-- Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church

He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’

“Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’ 

“So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’  Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’  So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.

“And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?

“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

-- Luke 16.1–13 (NKJV)

In today's collect, we pray that God would hear and answer our prayers...but not just that God would give us what we ask, in this prayer we pray that God would give us the desires to pray for what we ought to be praying. In other words, our prayer is that God would bend our wills to his and that then, with sanctified desires, we might pray for those things which he is pleased to hear and answer. Today's gospel reading similarly challenges us, as we plan for the future, not to follow the ways of the world around us but to seek security in Christ and his kingdom. This certainly is a prayer God will not hesitate to joyfully answer. May God be pleased to continue shaping and re-shaping us in the image of our Savior.

We Give Thee But Thine Own (William Walsham How, 1864)

We give Thee but Thine own,
Whate’er the gift may be:
All that we have is Thine alone,
A trust, O Lord, from Thee.

May we Thy bounties thus
As stewards true receive,
And gladly, as Thou blessest us,
To Thee our first-fruits give.

O hearts are bruised and dead,
And homes are bare and cold,
And lambs for whom the Shepherd bled
Are straying from the fold!

To comfort and to bless,
To find a balm for woe,
To tend the lone and fatherless,
Is angels’ work below.

The captive to release,
The lost to God to bring,
To teach the way of life and peace,—
It is a Christ-like thing.

And we believe Thy word,
Though dim our faith may be;
Whate’er we do for Thine, O Lord,
We do it unto Thee.

Photo by Pascal Debrunner on Unsplash