Tag: prayer

Matthew 7:7 “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.”(NLT)

It’s really very simple: If you believe, ask!

Let’s say I’m your best friend.  I happen to own a rental car business that’s in multiple locations and very successful.  We’ve been friends since childhood.  

You hear bad news that your aunt has passed away and she lives in a small town 5 hours away that doesn’t have a major airport near it.  Unfortunately, you’ve messed up your credit with a bankruptcy and you don’t have a credit card to use to get a rent a car.  And so you decide not to go as you don’t own a car either.  Later that day we go out to eat and you share with me how sad you are that you are missing your aunt’s funeral.  I ask why you can’t make it and you explain the situation.  I have a puzzled look on my face and scratch my head.  Then I ask you, “Why didn’t you ask me for my help?”  You stare without response silently at the floor.

So let me think about this from a heavenly perspective.  The bible tells us that God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).  Revelation 4:11 let’s us know that he made it because it’s what he decided he wanted–it pleased Him to create everything. He made everything and not at someone else’s command but just ‘cause He wanted to, and the bible also says that God loves us.  John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world that He gave us Jesus, His only son, to die for our sins.  So if God is the creator of everything and God love us so much that He wouldn’t even hold back His very son to help us, why wouldn’t we ask Him for his help in any and every situation?  It doesn’t add up.

If we believed God was powerful enough then why wouldn’t we ask.  So we must not believe He is as described in the bible.  We must not believe in the flood–God sending a prolonged hurricane or typhoon to submerge the whole earth except for Noah and all who would get on the ark.  We must not believe Daniel was kept safe in the lion’s den.  We must not believe that Jesus showed up and kept the 3 hebrews in the fiery furnace safe.  We must not believe, or we would ask.  

But probably closer to the truth is that we don’t believe God will do what we want.  We may believe the stories of the parting of the Red Sea or the tumbling down of the walls of Jericho,  but we probably remember prayers that we prayed when we first believed that didn’t go our way.  Did someone forget to tell us that God is not a genie?

From what I learned about the dwellers of the special bottles, they are suppose to come out when we rub the bottle and grant us three wishes.  I think that many of us were introduced to prayer like it was rubbing the bottle and we would get whatever our three requests were.  Perhaps someone could have enlightened us to know God can say, no!

So maybe what we are really saying is this:  I believe you exist.  I believe you created everything cause you wanted it.  I even believe that you sent Jesus to die for my sins.  So you must love me.  But I just don’t trust you enough to let you decide what’s best for me.  And so many others have hurt me by not doing what they said they’d do or not having my best interest at heart when they said no that I don’t want to open myself up to be disappointed like that again!  God, I don’t want you to break my heart.  God, I don’t want to give up what little control I think I have.  But if I believe He can, and I believe He loves me, then I trust that He who made me and loves me knows what’s best for me.  He could do things as he pleases and not regard my wishes at all.  But instead God has given me an opportunity to give input because this draws me into a close relationship with Him.  He wants me to have worship that nourshes by having a personal relationship with Him.. 

So I return to where we began.

It’s simple, really.  If you believe, ask!