"And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."
Luke 11:9-10
Sometimes this sort of thing can be hard to believe. We think, wait... just ask for something and get it? That isn't how life works. If I ask for a million bucks, it doesn't just rain from the sky. So, there are obviously some limitations. :)
Maybe it should be how life works though. :) It's definitely how God *wants* to work with us. To get there, we have to develop our relationship with God, and we have to learn to match our true desires to what we ask, and we sometimes have to learn more about our desires too. In a later verse God talks about giving "good gifts." If we ask God if we can play in the street, he's going to say no. He doesn't want to give us bad gifts, or things that can harm us... we'll get plenty of that in life already from making poor choices and just because this world is not a temptation-free zone. :)
A lot of it is faith too, and that's part of getting to know God. We have to talk to him and understand him pretty well before we're going to trust him on that deep level that it takes to ask for something and know that he will grant it to you. Part of it is becoming more like God and wanting what he wants, making his goals our own... like both wanting us to be better, and to help others, and to build up the church and his kingdom.
Another part is also in the way we ask. Sometimes we go to God and we think that we have everything worked out... just give us the million dollars and everything will be fine. But we forget that throwing money at something is often the worst way to solve a problem. God can see what caused the problem in the first place, and he can see what we're going to learn along the way. Raining money down on us is just going to teach us to pay people to do things... instead of us actually learning those things ourselves, or learning how to develop ideas, gather resources, and work as a community towards something. Instead of going to God and telling him how to solve the problem, let's try asking him to help us solve the problem, and letting him work out how. I think we'll get much better results. :) Not that we shouldn't study things out and work on solutions... just that we need to remember that God often has a better way.
Today, let's ask and knock. And let's remember not to play in the street. :) Let's work on being the type of people that God can trust with the things we ask for.
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."
Luke 11:9-10
Sometimes this sort of thing can be hard to believe. We think, wait... just ask for something and get it? That isn't how life works. If I ask for a million bucks, it doesn't just rain from the sky. So, there are obviously some limitations. :)
Maybe it should be how life works though. :) It's definitely how God *wants* to work with us. To get there, we have to develop our relationship with God, and we have to learn to match our true desires to what we ask, and we sometimes have to learn more about our desires too. In a later verse God talks about giving "good gifts." If we ask God if we can play in the street, he's going to say no. He doesn't want to give us bad gifts, or things that can harm us... we'll get plenty of that in life already from making poor choices and just because this world is not a temptation-free zone. :)
A lot of it is faith too, and that's part of getting to know God. We have to talk to him and understand him pretty well before we're going to trust him on that deep level that it takes to ask for something and know that he will grant it to you. Part of it is becoming more like God and wanting what he wants, making his goals our own... like both wanting us to be better, and to help others, and to build up the church and his kingdom.
Another part is also in the way we ask. Sometimes we go to God and we think that we have everything worked out... just give us the million dollars and everything will be fine. But we forget that throwing money at something is often the worst way to solve a problem. God can see what caused the problem in the first place, and he can see what we're going to learn along the way. Raining money down on us is just going to teach us to pay people to do things... instead of us actually learning those things ourselves, or learning how to develop ideas, gather resources, and work as a community towards something. Instead of going to God and telling him how to solve the problem, let's try asking him to help us solve the problem, and letting him work out how. I think we'll get much better results. :) Not that we shouldn't study things out and work on solutions... just that we need to remember that God often has a better way.
Today, let's ask and knock. And let's remember not to play in the street. :) Let's work on being the type of people that God can trust with the things we ask for.
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