(Audio)
Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
What do we desire? Let's be specific, thinking of the next day or so. Are these things for which we have sought the LORD? Have we asked, sought, and knocked? And if the door did not open immediately did we keep asking? More likely, we tend to briefly pray a tacit acknowledgment of these desires and then move on. There is a problem we conceal when we do this. It is believing that God isn't interested in these deep desires or that he really can't intervene practically in our lives. But if he is not interested, than neither should we be interested. Yet we know that when it comes to giving good things God is indeed interested.
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give good things
to those who ask him.
True, sometimes the Father's good gifts are even better than we ask for. They are gifts of the Spirit rather than of the world. But even so our desires are never too great but only ever too little for what he wants to give us. The more challenging belief is to believe, like Mary, that all things are possible for God. Practically speaking, we believe that God can give us good and warm feelings and little else beyond subjective comfort. When we don't see the door opening day after day we get used to seeing it closed. How do we escape that vicious cycle? His words can empower us to transcend the limits of our expectations.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Queen Esther understood the practical sense in which God wanted to be involved in her deliverance.
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, blessed are you.
Help me, who am alone and have no help but you,
for I am taking my life in my hand.
As a child I used to hear from the books of my forefathers
that you, O LORD, always free those who are pleasing to you.
Now help me, who am alone and have no one but you,
O LORD, my God.
The main point today is that we are meant to be able to truly bring to God the things we care about, and to keep bringing them before him, trusting that he has answers waiting that are even better than that for which we ask.
Save us from the hand of our enemies;
turn our mourning into gladness
and our sorrows into wholeness.
The LORD will complete what he has done for us. Let's get to asking!
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