Are You Asking God?

“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.”
Luke 11:9

When you need something from God, start by ASKING.

I’ve heard a lot of people pray…and I’d say about 10-20% actually ASK God for things correctly.
I’m not being a legalist…hear me out.

God dealt with me years ago about my method of asking. My prayers sounded like a list of demands from a kidnapper…even though I meant well:

“Be with so and so at the doctor, give us safe travels to wherever, bless my health today, heal my friends cancer, give us strength for whatever, open doors for me when I need them…”

In case you missed it, that’s not asking. What parent raises their child to say: “Give me this, give me that, help that person, heal this person, etc.”
Instead, we teach kids to say:
“May I please have that?”

Why is that?
It’s because the child who learns to say “give me” cultivates their selfish heart that only thinks of himself.
They have a tantrum ready to go when they hear the reply “no”.

The child who says “May I please have…” is making allowance for the reply “no”, and doesn’t have his whole heart set on “yes”.

God dealt with me because I was firing a list of demands at Him and not giving space and time for a reply. I was simply seeing what would come back in my favor, then thanking Him for saying “yes” to what I wanted.

That’s dysfunctional prayer.
We need to respect God enough to allow Him to say “no” to what we want, trusting that it’s in our best interest because He has all the wisdom.
I thank God for the times He told me “no”, even though it stung at the time.

I still ask God for things, but with a corrected posture.

God loves to hear us ask for what we need, and He really loves when we wait on His response.
He cannot make a mistake.
Oftentimes He has told me “yes”.
But I also have to accept “no”.
His “no” is better than my “yes”.

Have a great weekend, friends!