May 5
“Truly, truly, I say to you, if you shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.” (John 16:23-24)
Do you see anything on the list of questions from yesterday that you could use more of? How diligent are you about praying for these things? How often do you pray for your own peace and purity of heart? How often do you pray for God’s wisdom to know what you should be doing? How often do you ask God to give you words to speak in certain situations? How often do you ask Him to give you opportunities to minister to others? And finally, closer to the topic at hand, how often do you ask Him, plead with Him, to deliver you and your loved ones from temptation?
We need to be asking, frequently and continually. This I believe glorifies God. He wants us to ask, and He wants to give us good things. But He will often not give us things unless we ask for them, continually, and with urgency. If you have trouble asking God for things, guess what? ASK that God would help you to ask! There is nothing that we can’t take to God in prayer, no issue too great or small.
Isn’t that incredible? Isn’t that simply astounding? That the God who fills the universe and heavens beyond it, the God who is able to see everything that happens everywhere in time and space, the God who invented physics and chemistry and life itself, this God wants to care for our needs on a daily basis. This God cares for our hearts, our minds, our bodies, our lives. This God is concerned about the things we are concerned about. This God is waiting to help us and come to our aid…if we will only ask Him!
Why do we have to ask? Why doesn’t God just do it for us? He knows our needs, doesn’t He? Of course He knows our needs. But He wants us to realize how much we need Him. He is not interested I don’t think in a creation that doesn’t need Him, because if we don’t need Him, pretty soon we don’t want Him. He wants a relationship with us. He wants us to see in our weakness how much we really do need Him, that we aren’t invincible, that we can’t make it on our own. This is reality, we just haven’t really figured it out yet or are too stubborn to admit it and humble ourselves before Him.
Asking takes humility. It takes a recognition that we can’t do it. It takes a recognition that God is good and that God can do it. And He wants to do good things for us when we ask. What is keeping you from asking God for far more things than you ever thought you could or should be asking Him? What is preventing you from praying often and asking often? This, I believe, is what God is calling us to, a total dependence on Him. This is unceasing prayer.