Articles
Have We Asked?
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you”(Matt 7:7)
We have our worries. Money is tight. People we love are sick. Our children are struggling. Our marriage is in trouble. One question: Have we asked?
Nehemiah asked for help in his relationship with the king: “Let your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man”(Neh 1:11). His prayer was granted. If we long for help in our relationships, have we asked?
Hezekiah was given a death sentence by God. He asked: “Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight”(2 Kings 20:3). His prayer was granted, and God healed him. If we long for help for the sick, have we asked?
Jesus taught His disciples not to ask for prosperity, but “Give us this day our daily bread’(Matt 6:11). If we are in true need, have we asked?
What’s the problem, James? “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”(James 4:2). To be sure, God is not promising blank checks in prayer or committing to give us things that would hurt us or be contrary to His plan. But those qualifications do nothing to blunt the fact that God wants us to pray. Have we asked?
