“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you”
(Matthew 7:7 NIV)
”…You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives,that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”(James 4:2-3 NIV)
100% NOT from my own effort, but luckily, I understood something important this week.
I have been disappointed by prayer. The Bible says we must ask, and ask in Faith, and with Faith and it will be done. If only we had Faith like a mustard seed… So I ask God, like the man who asked Jesus, please increase my Faith!
I have gone back to “unanswered” prayers, and asked myself, “is this what James was talking about? Did I pray this in selfishness?”. Even if it was selfish, how could this not be God’s Will?
Sometimes God is just quiet on the matter… probably because He wants me to think more, or learn more. Maybe to repent more? Or to grow more? Or maybe I was just plain wrong to ask. Asking outside of His Kingdom plans?
I think God has many reasons to answer, or not answer, prayers. I teach my kids that God ALWAYS answers. Sometimes it is Yes, sometimes it is No, and sometimes it is Later.
But what then? We thank God for Yes, and we thank God for No, and for Later?
(A friend of mine told me yesterday, She learnt all the Sunday School answers for church… but she had no idea what to do with it, or what half of it meant…)
If God says “Later” what now?
So as I was sitting in bed, a message passed in front of my phone screen concerning Galatians 4.
“As long as an heir is a minor, he’s not really much different than a servant, although he’s the master over all of them. For until the time appointed by the father, the child is under the domestic supervision of the guardians of the estate. So it is with us…“
(Galatians 4:1–3 TPT)
When God says “Yes, but later”, it might not be the right time, and we need to keep on praying, but maybe it is that we first need to grow a bit more?
Yes, you can have this, when you are of age, when you are ready for it… when you are ready to handle the responsibility attached to what you are asking.
When James and John asked Jesus if they can one day sit on His right and left in His kingdom, He answered that they did not know what they were asking of Him. They did not understand the attached repercussions.
Maybe what we are asking for is right and inside God’s Will for His kingdom, but if He grants our prayer, we will not be served well. We are not ready for it, and so God holds back so that we can grow in Faith and maturity, and not fall into pride and arrogance?
So if God doesn’t answer my prayers. Maybe I must go back and ask God:
“Where must I still grow?”
Be utterly blessed, and take care of those God placed in your circle.
