"Say thank-you." My mom said. That was when the problem arose - I wasn't usually a shy child but for some reason I decided that I just couldn't talk to that lady. She seemed to be very nice and my mom was standing right there with me, so I honestly had no reason not to thank her but I was determined that I wasn't going to. "If you don't say thank-you, you can't have the book." My mom warned me, still I remained silent. Long story short, I didn't say thank you and I also didn't get that book.
I don't think I was any older than five at that time, but I still clearly remember the lesson I learned at that garage sale. My mom didn't keep me from having the book because she didn't want me to enjoy the story, but because she knew it was important for me to learn the proper way to receive a gift. She loved me enough to teach me about obedience and thankfulness. Both of which were of far more value than that little book. There is a certain way in which gifts are to be received and I needed to learn to use that method. Likewise, God has created a pattern for how we are to receive the gifts He has promised us. A pattern that we need to learn and apply. He has told us to ask.
“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? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 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 vii. 7-11)
Prayer is the method by which we ask God for His promises. It is a God established method. He is our provider and is perfectly capable of meeting our every need. Matthew vi.8 tells us that He knows our needs even before we make requests and yet He still commands us to ask. Why? There is more to be gained than just the thing we are asking for. There are lessons to be found in the asking itself!
What lessons can be learned by asking for God's provision?
1. A Knowledge of the Giver
In the regular business of life we all too often forget to give credit where credit is due. So many of the gifts God gives to us go unnoticed. Just think of how many millions of snowflakes He has created that melt away before anyone can admire their unique design. Or think of how He paints the sky, twice each day, and is not deterred in doing so if we forget to praise His work. God gives us many gifts without us ever asking for them, but when we have the opportunity to ask Him for something His answer is meant to remind us Who the source of our provision is. Every answered prayer should remind us that we have a God and that He is generous. His knowledge of us is perfect and He answers our prayers in the way and at the time that will help us to see Him best. As He meets our needs we are taught about His loving kindness and shown the thoughts that He thinks towards us.
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." (James i.17)
2. Learning to Trust rather than Worry
The people of Israel feared Goliath because he was greater than any of them; but when David looked at the giant he realized that God much greater than him. Nothing is too large or too small to be brought before our Lord. God tells us "don't fear", "don't doubt", "don't worry." He expects us to have faith instead. You must have faith in order to access any of the promises of God. Doubt, fear, and worry are all closely tied to a lack of faith and a lack of faith is sin.
James i.6 says, "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." This may sound harsh or unfair but once we understand what faith is, it makes sense. Faith is simply a complete trust or confidence in someone or something. Therefore, when we say that we "cannot have faith" or " just don't have faith" we are actually saying that we "cannot trust God" or we "just don't trust Him" and we know that these statements are not true.
"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." (Philippians iv.6)
We can be anxious for nothing by comparing our problems to Him rather than to us. Coming to Him for help, sets us free from the need to waste our time in worry.
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matthew vi. 34)
Tyler Sheff was quoted to say, "When you give in to fear you are under the illusion that you can predict the future." We cannot predict the future and we do not have to worry about it because the future is in the hands of our God and it is He who will determine the outcome of every trouble and every circumstance.
When Jesus was praying for Lazarus to be raised from the dead (in John xi. 41- 42) He said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” He thanked God for hearing Him before He saw His prayer answered in the physical realm because He knew that God always heard Him and He trusted His Father to answer. Once we learn who our God is and how faithful He is, we should easily trust in Him. Thus we can easily have faith in the place of fear and worry.
3. Learning What to Ask For
Another important lesson that is to be learned through asking is what we are to be asking for.
"You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures." (James iv. 3)
When Jesus gave His disciples an example of how to pray He began by asking that God's name should be hallowed, which means 'honoured as holy'. That His kingdom would come and His will would be done one earth in the same way that it is in heaven. He continued to ask for other things such as bread, forgiveness, and deliverance but His greatest desire, and the first priority of His prayers was that God's will would be done and His purposes accomplished. God knows us and He delights to meet our needs. He tells us to bring our cares to Him because He cares for us. Yet it is God's will that needs to be accomplished, not ours.
"Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm xxxvii. 4)
As we come before God in prayer, seek to know Him, and learn His will He will show us what to want, what to pray for. He brings our hearts into alignment with His.
4. Persistence
God values persistence in prayer and wants to teach us not to give up easily. Jesus taught this lesson in parables more than once:
When we pray we are literally waging warfare in the spiritual realm. As in physical battles, patience and perseverance are needed to break through to a victory.
"And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart." (Galations vi.9)
Daniel fasted and prayed for three weeks waiting for an answer from God. God sent an angel to answer Daniel and when he arrived he told Daniel, "God has heard everything that you said ever since the first day you decided to humble yourself in front of your God so that you could learn to understand things. I have come in response to your prayer. The commander of the Persian kingdom opposed me for 21 days. But then Michael, one of the chief commanders, came to help me because I was left alone with the kings of Persia. I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the last days, because the vision is about times still to come.” (Daniel x. 12-14) Daniel's prayer was answered long before he saw that answer but he had to have faith and continue to pray while the spiritual warfare was waging.
We know God praises the faith of men like Abraham and Noah but have you ever thought of how long they waited in faith? Noah was commanded to build the ark one hundred and twenty years before the flood came. For more than a hundred years he was building a boat on dry ground, in a world that had never before seen rain! There was more than twenty years between the time that God first promised Abraham a son to the day that Isaac was actually born - and Abraham and Sarah were already well advanced in years!
These are only a few of the many lessons we can learn by obeying God's command to ask. When George and Mary Mueller set out to start an orphanage they had God alone to depend on. They didn't have dishes, or clothes, or people waiting in line to help them, or money with which to purchase the building. It was only God who could provide those things. They learned to ask for everything and before long they realized that there was more to be gained by asking than just the things they were asking for. God was teaching them to be persistent and to trust in Him. God would not lack in faithfulness to provide...
'"Nobody?" Mary looked up at him as if she was going to cry. She sat on the parlor floor, surrounded by bolts of flannel and calico. He saw at a glance that she had been cutting out dresses for the little girls to wear. She looked like a forlorn child herself, asking him again, "Nobody at all, George? Are you sure?"
"Nobody came near 6 Wilson Street. Not a child. Not a grandmother. Not a city official. Nobody."
"Nobody applied?" She repeated dully, rolling the bolt of flannel back and forth on the rug. "Where were they?" The drabness of the parlor, the pitifulness of her evenings spent over the cheap flannel, all that they had sacrificed - it was overwhelming.
"Maybe we had better ask ourselves - where was God?" He retorted. Mary's eyes widened in horror. "Alright, where was He?" George persisted, flogging himself as well as Mary with the tortuous thought. Then suddenly, he wanted to throw himself down beside the chair and beat it with his fists until the stuffing wheezed out, crying to God. "Mary, Mary!"
"Oh, George!" She pushed the flannel away and got to her feet.
"All the way home from Wilson Street, I've been praying. God, where did I fail? ' Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.' That's what He said, that's what Psalms eighty one says, I believed He would."
"He did. George, He did, Until..."
"Yes. I prayed for money." There were both bitterness and sadness in his voice. "He sent gifts larger than I dreamed about. From people I didn't know."
"I prayed for kitchen things."
"And a strange man came to the door with his arms full. I know, Mary. We prayed for cooks and teachers."
"And they came. You prayed for clothes and got them. You prayed for..." She stopped suddenly, her eyes widening. "Oh, George!" He was too preoccupied with his tragedy to see that her eyes were sparkling.
"I believed He would go on giving me what I prayed for. I believed that, Mary. Until today."
"George, George, that's it!" What ailed the woman? There was a joyous lilt to her words that made no sense at all. "That's it, " she said again. "Everything you prayed for."
"Don't you understand what's happened, Mary? He gave me everything I prayed for alright. Except the children." She looked as if she wanted to laugh. "That's it, you didn't ask for children."
"Didn't ask for..." What was she saying?
"Well, did you? I didn't. We never prayed together for them. Did you, George?" He felt suddenly weak, as if he had awakened from a terrifying dream. She was right. They had prayed for everything - everything from plates to underwear. But they hadn't asked God to send the orphans. "Don't you see, George? You thought..."
"There'd be too many."
"So you didn't"
"I didn't. Mary, I didn't." Now he wanted to laugh and take his wife in his arms and kiss her and praise God all at the same time.
"George, aren't we stupid?"
"Terribly stupid."
"And isn't He an incredible God!" What they did next was the only logical thing to do in George's mind. There in the parlor, they bowed their heads and in a few simple sentences made the request they had forgotten.' - Excerpt from George Mueller by Faith Coxe Bailey.
“It is not enough to begin to pray, nor to pray aright; nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray; but we must patiently, believingly, continue in prayer until we obtain an answer; and further we have not only to continue in prayer unto the end, but we have also to believe that God does hear us, and will answer our prayers. Most frequently we fail in not continuing in prayer until the blessing is obtained, and in not expecting the blessing.” — George Müller
Let us not forget to obey our Lord's commandment to ASK. For when we do we will find that His answer exceeds our every expectation!
4. Persistence
God values persistence in prayer and wants to teach us not to give up easily. Jesus taught this lesson in parables more than once:
"Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’”
Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke xviii. 1-8)
When we pray we are literally waging warfare in the spiritual realm. As in physical battles, patience and perseverance are needed to break through to a victory.
"And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart." (Galations vi.9)
Daniel fasted and prayed for three weeks waiting for an answer from God. God sent an angel to answer Daniel and when he arrived he told Daniel, "God has heard everything that you said ever since the first day you decided to humble yourself in front of your God so that you could learn to understand things. I have come in response to your prayer. The commander of the Persian kingdom opposed me for 21 days. But then Michael, one of the chief commanders, came to help me because I was left alone with the kings of Persia. I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the last days, because the vision is about times still to come.” (Daniel x. 12-14) Daniel's prayer was answered long before he saw that answer but he had to have faith and continue to pray while the spiritual warfare was waging.
We know God praises the faith of men like Abraham and Noah but have you ever thought of how long they waited in faith? Noah was commanded to build the ark one hundred and twenty years before the flood came. For more than a hundred years he was building a boat on dry ground, in a world that had never before seen rain! There was more than twenty years between the time that God first promised Abraham a son to the day that Isaac was actually born - and Abraham and Sarah were already well advanced in years!
These are only a few of the many lessons we can learn by obeying God's command to ask. When George and Mary Mueller set out to start an orphanage they had God alone to depend on. They didn't have dishes, or clothes, or people waiting in line to help them, or money with which to purchase the building. It was only God who could provide those things. They learned to ask for everything and before long they realized that there was more to be gained by asking than just the things they were asking for. God was teaching them to be persistent and to trust in Him. God would not lack in faithfulness to provide...
'"Nobody?" Mary looked up at him as if she was going to cry. She sat on the parlor floor, surrounded by bolts of flannel and calico. He saw at a glance that she had been cutting out dresses for the little girls to wear. She looked like a forlorn child herself, asking him again, "Nobody at all, George? Are you sure?"
"Nobody came near 6 Wilson Street. Not a child. Not a grandmother. Not a city official. Nobody."
"Nobody applied?" She repeated dully, rolling the bolt of flannel back and forth on the rug. "Where were they?" The drabness of the parlor, the pitifulness of her evenings spent over the cheap flannel, all that they had sacrificed - it was overwhelming.
"Maybe we had better ask ourselves - where was God?" He retorted. Mary's eyes widened in horror. "Alright, where was He?" George persisted, flogging himself as well as Mary with the tortuous thought. Then suddenly, he wanted to throw himself down beside the chair and beat it with his fists until the stuffing wheezed out, crying to God. "Mary, Mary!"
"Oh, George!" She pushed the flannel away and got to her feet.
"All the way home from Wilson Street, I've been praying. God, where did I fail? ' Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.' That's what He said, that's what Psalms eighty one says, I believed He would."
"He did. George, He did, Until..."
"Yes. I prayed for money." There were both bitterness and sadness in his voice. "He sent gifts larger than I dreamed about. From people I didn't know."
"I prayed for kitchen things."
"And a strange man came to the door with his arms full. I know, Mary. We prayed for cooks and teachers."
"And they came. You prayed for clothes and got them. You prayed for..." She stopped suddenly, her eyes widening. "Oh, George!" He was too preoccupied with his tragedy to see that her eyes were sparkling.
"I believed He would go on giving me what I prayed for. I believed that, Mary. Until today."
"George, George, that's it!" What ailed the woman? There was a joyous lilt to her words that made no sense at all. "That's it, " she said again. "Everything you prayed for."
"Don't you understand what's happened, Mary? He gave me everything I prayed for alright. Except the children." She looked as if she wanted to laugh. "That's it, you didn't ask for children."
"Didn't ask for..." What was she saying?
"Well, did you? I didn't. We never prayed together for them. Did you, George?" He felt suddenly weak, as if he had awakened from a terrifying dream. She was right. They had prayed for everything - everything from plates to underwear. But they hadn't asked God to send the orphans. "Don't you see, George? You thought..."
"There'd be too many."
"So you didn't"
"I didn't. Mary, I didn't." Now he wanted to laugh and take his wife in his arms and kiss her and praise God all at the same time.
"George, aren't we stupid?"
"Terribly stupid."
"And isn't He an incredible God!" What they did next was the only logical thing to do in George's mind. There in the parlor, they bowed their heads and in a few simple sentences made the request they had forgotten.' - Excerpt from George Mueller by Faith Coxe Bailey.
“It is not enough to begin to pray, nor to pray aright; nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray; but we must patiently, believingly, continue in prayer until we obtain an answer; and further we have not only to continue in prayer unto the end, but we have also to believe that God does hear us, and will answer our prayers. Most frequently we fail in not continuing in prayer until the blessing is obtained, and in not expecting the blessing.” — George Müller
Let us not forget to obey our Lord's commandment to ASK. For when we do we will find that His answer exceeds our every expectation!
"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians iii. 20 -21)
In Christ
quiana
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