Ask and You Shall Receive
Have you ever asked our heavenly Father for something? I am sure we all have many times. And many times we have been granted our requests. I love hearing stories of miraculous healings and interventions in the lives of our brethren!
But then there are the times we have asked for things and been denied. Maybe it was healing for a loved one, or for the return of a prodigal child. Maybe it was a shiny new car, or a spouse.
Whatever it was, when the answer is “no” how do we handle that? What about all the promises in the Bible?
Is it because our faith wasn’t strong enough? Is it because we committed a sin, and our Father doesn’t hear our prayers? Or is it something else entirely?
These are questions I have asked, and after studying this subject, I would like to share my findings with you, and get some input and different perspectives if possible.
Let’s start with the promises.
“So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:22-24, NKJV). This account is echoed in Matthew 21:22.
I doubt that our Father is all that interested in re-arranging the local geography at our whim, so this is more figuratively speaking. I’m sure we have all had problems in our lives that seem like mountains, and we have longed for the power to remove those obstacles. It appears that we have this power at our disposal, and all we have to do is believe that this is the case!
Let's move on.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:12-14, NKJV).
This is getting better and better!
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you” (John 15:16, NKJV).
“And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:23-24, NKJV).
Is this what a good father would do for his children?
Well… no! That would create children that are selfish monsters!
It seems that these scriptures that we have read are only half of the story.
Let’s look at the other half.
“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. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 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!” (Matthew 7:7-9,11, NKJV).
Notice that He will give good things to those who ask Him. If you ask our Father to make you a rockstar with a mansion in Hollywood California, is that a good gift?
If a child has a responsible parent, and the child asks for a bucket full of candy, will the parent give it to him? No! That would not be a good gift!
Let’s look at some more scriptures.
“For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly” (Psalms 84:11, NKJV).
“The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing” (Psalms 34:10, NKJV).
“Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday” (Psalms 37:4-6, NKJV).
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8, NKJV).
“He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the Lord” (Proverbs 18:22, NKJV).
“He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty” (Luke 1:53, NKJV).
As we can see, these passages put the emphasis on good things!
Now let us look at examples in the Bible of prayers for good things being answered.
Abraham’s prayer for healing for others in Genesis 20:17. “So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children.” Request granted.
Abraham's servant’s prayer for a sign when seeking a wife for Isaac in Genesis 24:12-15. Request granted.
Gideon’s prayer for a sign in Judges 6:36-40 using a fleece. Request granted.
Manoah’s prayer for the return of the messenger in Judges 13:8-9. Request granted.
Samson’s prayer for strength to destroy enemies in Judges 16:28-30. Request granted.
Hannah’s prayer for a son in I Samuel 1:11-20. Request granted.
Solomon’s prayer for wisdom in I Kings 3:5-12. Request granted.
Elijah’s prayer for the resurrection of a child in I Kings 17:17-22. Request granted.
Elijah’s prayer for punishment of evil referenced in James 5:17-18. Request granted.
Elijah’s prayer for the revealing of guardian angels to his servant and the enemy armies to be smote with blindness in II Kings 6:15-18. Request granted.
Hezekiah’s prayer for deliverance from the Assyrians in II Kings 19:19-35. Request granted.
Hezekiah’s prayer for his healing in II Kings 20:1-7. Request granted.
Jabez’s prayer that he would not live up to his name and cause pain for others in I Chronicles 4:9-10. Request granted.
Ezra’s prayer for guidance on a journey in Ezra 8:21-23. Request granted.
Nehemiah’s prayer for favor in a foreign king’s eyes in Nehemiah 1:11; 2:4-6. Request granted.
Jonah’s prayer for deliverance from death in Jonah 2:1-2,10. Request granted.
The congregation’s prayers for Peter after Herod arrested him in Acts 12:5-7. Request granted.
These are all pretty encouraging.
And then we have the Apostle Paul’s prayer for healing in II Corinthians 12:7-10,
“And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Here we have Paul ask for healing, but the request was denied. By the time that Paul wrote this account he had realized that the spiritual gain was greater by the answer being no, than the physical gain would have been had the answer been yes.
The spiritual is far more important than the physical, and the Almighty had the best outcome in mind.
David’s prayer for healing for his son in II Samuel 12:13-18. “So David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ And Nathan said to David, ‘The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.’ Then Nathan departed to his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became ill. David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. So the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them. Then on the seventh day it came to pass that the child died.” Request denied!
What was the good in this situation? Could it be that David’s petition was denied to show the enemies of our God that His servants do not have a free pass to commit adultery and murder? Or perhaps because the child was illegitimate, he could not be the heir to the throne, through which God’s covenant with David would be established. Or maybe, the good that came out of this was the change of heart expressed by David in Psalm 51.
Maybe all of the above. But as with the apostle Paul, we can be sure that our Father had the best result in mind.
So, with these examples we can see that some of the petitions that seem good to us also seem good to the Almighty, and the answer is yes. Others that seem good to us, He knows would be less beneficial in the long run, and the answer is no.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9, NKJV).
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11, NKJV).
“But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” (Romans 9:20-21, NKJV).
We must also bear in mind that what is good for one person may not be good for another. Healing was granted to Hezekiah and denied the Apostle Paul.
To us this may not seem fair. But we should remember that: “From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works” (Psalms 33:14-15, NKJV).
We have gone through plentiful scriptures telling us that we can ask for whatever we want, and scriptures telling us that no good thing will be withheld. Then we looked at examples of prayers for good things being granted, and other petitions denied. The decision belongs to our Father alone.
So this is where faith comes in. We can have faith that our Father will do what is best for us.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28, NKJV).
We should not have faith that anything we ask for will be given to us, because if we ask for something that would not be good for us, and the answer is “no” then that destroys our concept of faith. Remember, our Father never promised to give us bad gifts.
So now let us consider what we should and should not do in asking for personal favors from the Almighty.
We should have faith that our Father will do what He says He will do. There are countless examples of this in scripture. Our Father cannot lie! “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind” (James 1:5-6, NKJV).
We can have faith that He will only give us good gifts.
We should not yield to craving. We have an example of this in Numbers 11:4-6, “Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: ‘Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!’ 33-34 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague. So he called the name of that place Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had yielded to craving.”
The word for craving here is Strong’s # H183, and it means: to wish for, covet, greatly desire, long for, lust after. We know from the tenth commandment that this is a no no.
We should be persistent as instructed in Luke 11 with the parable of the guy trying to get food from his neighbor in the middle of the night, but we should not crave something so badly that we won’t take “no” for an answer. We shouldn’t act like spoiled brats!
We should not ask for selfish things, such as riches or fame. King Solomon won favor by asking for wisdom to help others and not for personal riches. Given our Father’s reaction one might think that what Solomon did not ask for, was a popular request.
“You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:2-3, NKJV).
What is known as the “Prayer of Jabez” has become quite popular among some circles. The idea behind it is that if you pray what he prayed, then our Father is obligated to bless you with physical prosperity. If we actually read what the Bible says it paints a different picture.
“Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, ‘Because I bore him in pain.’ And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, ‘Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!’ So God granted him what he requested” (I Chronicles 4:9-10, NKJV).
Jabez asked for prosperity so that he would not cause harm, not merely because that was easier than working for a living. And he asked that our God would keep him from evil. Of course this prayer was granted! Both of these requests were for good things, (for Jabez).
A great example of the attitude we should have is found in Proverbs 30:7-9.
“Two things I request of You (Deprive me not before I die): Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches— Feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You, And say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God”
Finally, we should be thankful in our life and in our prayers. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7, NKJV).
So, when it comes to asking for personal favors, we should:
Have faith
Not yield to craving
Be persistent
Not be greedy
Be thankful
Be willing to accept no as an answer
Remember, our Father does not owe us anything; we owe Him everything!
It is perfectly acceptable to ask our Father for personal favors, but we should follow Yeshua’s example in prayer, as He prayed saying, “...nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42, NKJV).
And now for one final scripture to sum it all up: I John 5:14-15.
“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
Excellent article--very insightful!!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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