Ask And Ye Shall Receive...

1Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

“Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

3Give us each day our daily bread

4and forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us

And lead us not into temptation.”

5And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 9And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

To continue the thoughts from yesterday's "Dear Abby" parody about whether God answers prayers no matter what, consider this passage from Luke chapter 11 (verses 1-13, if that's not clear). First of all, as I've said before, the naming of verses 2-4 as the "Lord's Prayer" is such an odd choice of titles, since John 17 is so clearly the Lord's actual prayer to the Father. This is the prayer that He gives for US to pray to the Father with; it should be "Our Prayer" or some such title.

Be that as it may...

Jesus makes clear that even we sinful humans will get up and help a friend who asks a favor of us - "A friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him" - even though in the sleeping arrangements of first century Jerusalem and beyond, the whole family slept in the main room; thus getting up to make three loaves of bread implied waking the entire family to make it with the light on in the cooking area of the same main room. "Yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs", won't he?

"And I tell you," Jesus continues, if you ask in your prayers to God, you will get what you ask for. "Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened." (Luke 11:9, worth memorizing), because it is Your Father of whom you are asking these boons. Christ points out how the fathers among us "evil" humans would give our own children "good gifts" and not serpents or scorpions; "how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

(Note that it is NOT a question, but a statement. How much more will He give you!)

So, is God just a Santa Claus, a genie who grants our every wish? 

Of course not. Unless...

Here's the catch. Jesus distinctly compared God to being a father, and even said in verse 13, "how much more will your Heavenly Father give..." 

In order for Him to be our Father, we must be His Children...and in order for you to be His Child... you must accept His invitation into your family. He has many places where He gives you key phrases to accept Christ into your heart, but in essence, what you must do is admit that Jesus is God and accept Him as the Lord of your life. Admitting Jesus is God is crucial because without that, without admitting that Jesus rose from the dead, there is no reason to give Him Lordship over your life. And by giving Him Lordship, you are saying that as God, He knows better than we do what's best for us.

I was thinking about this today: Before I was saved, before I was born again and actually gave Him ownership over my life, one of my primary motivator songs was Incubus' "Drive", which implores the listener to "take the wheel and steer" your own life, rather than letting others control where your life goes. Now, there's a great song by the band Manafest that I love, called "Let You Drive" and ironically it delivers the exact opposite message:

Take my hands off the wheel
And let You drive
Let You drive
Let You drive
Here’s the key to my heart
So come inside
Take my life
You can take my life

And I believe in both: If your alternatives are you drive or you let society drive your life, then by all means, you should drive. But if you're a child of God, there's a better alternative. Take your hands off the wheel, and let Him drive your life. You'll go places you could never go without Him!!

Once you've accepted Him as the Lord of your life, then you might start asking and he will give....BUT now your wishes are likely to coincide with His! If you've truly given your life to the Lord, your prayers are probably something along the lines of "Thy Will Be Done, Lord"! And if you're asking those types of requests of the Lord, it's very likely that you'll receive positive answers! 

Does that mean God's just being self-serving? No - wishing for your own physical or fiscal salvation is in God's best interests, most often! I can give you a personal example: the medical bills from my late wife's fight and my own illness issues should have bankrupted me, but every time it looked like it would happen, some money arrived out of nowhere to keep us above water. Every time, without fail. 

So, if you want God to answer your prayers?

Why don't you try answering His prayers first?