I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel guilty asking God for things. There are a few reasons for this:
1. I feel like I'm being selfish asking for something for me.
2. I feel like I'm not worthy of what I'm asking for.
3. I feel like I should be content just as I am.
Notice anything about these reasons? They all reflect a feeling of my heart and have to do with ME. wah wah.
Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure." And that only God can understand it. 2 Corinthians 10:5 teaches us to be careful with what our heart tells us, "We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ."
This verse leads me in examining my reasons for feeling guilty for asking things from God. What does GOD say about asking from him?
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened...If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matt.7:7-11).
"And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive" (Matt. 21:22).
"Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13).
"If you abide in Me, and My words in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you" (John 15:7).
These are seriously only a few of the verses I found...I don't know about you...but I get the feeling God really wants us to ASK him for things!!
So am I saying that we can seriously ask him for anything and just get it? Cause for one, that totally doesn't sound Biblical, and second, I've tried...it doesn't happen.
When we ask, our heart must be in the correct posture, as James 4:2-3 tells us, "...You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions."
First of all...this verse flat out tells us that we don't have because we don't ask! But before we get to asking for everything on our wish list, we have to examine our hearts.
Our prayers must stem from a correct view of ourself and our God. The view that we are children approaching our Father with a request coming from our narrow perspective, trusting that our Father will know if it is best for us or there is yet something better. As you grow closer to Him, God changes your heart and the reason for your desires. When you realize who your God is and you mature in faith and prayer, everything shifts.
Those who know their Creator know his character of grace and giving.
Paul tells us to pray without ceasing, and his writings also show us that he expected nothing unless he asked for it. "If you may have everything by asking, and nothing without asking, I beg you to see how absolutely vital prayer is, and I beseech you to abound in it" (Spurgeon 109).
A few months ago I had a vision of Jesus standing up in heaven surrounded by millions of gifts, all wrapped beautifully. He was saying "Just ask!" He was simply waiting for someone to just ask him for one of these gifts, and he was ready to shower them with not only the requested gift, but many more because there were so many for the taking! "All heaven lies before the grasp of the asking man; all the promises of God are rich and inexhaustible, and their fulfillment is to be had by prayer" (Spurgeon 111).
"Once you get in the position of an asker, and you shall have what you never asked for, and never thought to receive" (113). This echoes Ephesians 3:20, 21"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine"
AH! That boggles my mind! How great is our God, that not only does he receive our request but he overwhelmingly answers. Remember that these blessings stem from a life rich in communion with God. "He that will not pray cannot have communion with God....Prayer is the great door of spiritual blessing, and if you close it, you shut out the favor" (110).
Keep the door open, friend. Keep it open, and access the way often. God is ready to send those gifts your way because it delights his heart to give you good gifts. It's ok to ask! So ask him. He is listening.
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