7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are 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!

Matthew 7:7-11 (ESV)

Ask! Just ask!

Jesus makes it very clear that we can have what we ask for from the Father, but we need to ask, and we need to seek and to knock. Oftentimes, we don’t ask or, when we ask, we ask for what we think God will provide. We put God in a box. He wants us to pray in faith. Pray for the impossible, that only He can do. That way, He will get the glory – when there’s no other way it could be answered. I can picture God on His throne, ready to answer our prayer in an amazing way we could never imagine. He’s waiting for us to ask.

Certainly God does give us things without asking. In fact, we would be overwhelmed if we knew. Just the air in our lungs is a gift. Safety on the roads, health in our bodies, you name it! We should take more time to give thanks.

Unanswered prayers

But why doesn’t God answer my prayers? Doesn’t this verse say everything we ask for we get? No. We need to keep this teaching in context with other teaching on prayer. Consider:

• We must ask in faith and not doubt – James 1:6-7
• Obey His commands – John 15:7
• Ask in Jesus’ name (as if you are asking on His behalf, with His authority) – John 14:13-14
• Abide in Him by abiding in His love – John 15:10
• Ask with the right motives and purpose  – James 4:3
• For a more exhaustive list, check out this link.

Guaranteed answers

There’s a key to ensuring you “get what you want”. Psalm 37:4 tells us, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Wow! So I just do that and I’ll get whatever I want! New Lamborghini. Done!

Hold on. First, we need to delight in Him. That link will help understand how to do that. Then, we need to be aware of what it means to “give you the desires”. He will remove our misguided desires and replace them with His. Then He can easily give us the desires of our heart 🙂.

Know our God

In all this, we really need to know our God. He is a loving Heavenly Father who loves to give good things to His children. Just like an earthly father, He gives what is good. If a child asks for a gun, will he give it to them? So God will not desire to give us things that will hurt us or others. In order to not be disappointed, we really need to seek to know Him and His ways. As Is 55:8-9 instructs us that His ways and thoughts are not ours…but we can seek them. Again, delight ourselves in Him and knowing Him.

RЯeflection

• How well do we know our God? For sure, it is not well enough. This needs to be the passion of our soul – to know and love Him.
• When we pray, do we seek God earnestly? Do we try every method, to ask, and to seek and to also knock?