Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. 1Jo5.14-15 NKJV
We may very well wonder, that if it is God's will to give us something, why do we need to ask for it at all? Doesn’t a good father provide what is needed for his children without their asking? Well in some instances of course he does, and apart of the reason we say he is a good father at all is because he is doing what God tells good fathers to do and what God the Father does every day when He send the rain on the just and the unjust. God is certainly a good father. His actions have defined Fatherhood.
But when Christ told us to ask for bread, and, to ask for it every day, He was telling us that our need is as much in the asking as it is in what we are asking for. Let me repeat this to my heart, for it bears repeating. My need is to ask not just what I am asking for. When we ask something from the Creator, we are doing what we were created to do. Prayer plays out the relationship of creature to Creator. God is the source of all blessings. When we pray, we both acknowledge this and we rightly draw from that source. God is glorified not only by answering our prayers but also in the prayers themselves. Our greatest need is expressed and met when we ask. God's greatest glory is expressed and experienced when we ask. Prayer itself is our greatest need, and expresses God’s greatest glory. Ask Him! 5/2/07 ts
Just me trying to be honest with God.
Our Greatest Need, His Greatest Glory
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. 1Jo5.14-15 NKJV
We may very well wonder, that if it is God's will to give us something, why do we need to ask for it at all? Doesn’t a good father provide what is needed for his children without their asking? Well in some instances of course he does, and apart of the reason we say he is a good father at all is because he is doing what God tells good fathers to do and what God the Father does every day when He send the rain on the just and the unjust. God is certainly a good father. His actions have defined Fatherhood.
But when Christ told us to ask for bread, and, to ask for it every day, He was telling us that our need is as much in the asking as it is in what we are asking for. Let me repeat this to my heart, for it bears repeating. My need is to ask not just what I am asking for. When we ask something from the Creator, we are doing what we were created to do. Prayer plays out the relationship of creature to Creator. God is the source of all blessings. When we pray, we both acknowledge this and we rightly draw from that source. God is glorified not only by answering our prayers but also in the prayers themselves. Our greatest need is expressed and met when we ask. God's greatest glory is expressed and experienced when we ask. Prayer itself is our greatest need, and expresses God’s greatest glory. Ask Him! 5/2/07 ts
We may very well wonder, that if it is God's will to give us something, why do we need to ask for it at all? Doesn’t a good father provide what is needed for his children without their asking? Well in some instances of course he does, and apart of the reason we say he is a good father at all is because he is doing what God tells good fathers to do and what God the Father does every day when He send the rain on the just and the unjust. God is certainly a good father. His actions have defined Fatherhood.
But when Christ told us to ask for bread, and, to ask for it every day, He was telling us that our need is as much in the asking as it is in what we are asking for. Let me repeat this to my heart, for it bears repeating. My need is to ask not just what I am asking for. When we ask something from the Creator, we are doing what we were created to do. Prayer plays out the relationship of creature to Creator. God is the source of all blessings. When we pray, we both acknowledge this and we rightly draw from that source. God is glorified not only by answering our prayers but also in the prayers themselves. Our greatest need is expressed and met when we ask. God's greatest glory is expressed and experienced when we ask. Prayer itself is our greatest need, and expresses God’s greatest glory. Ask Him! 5/2/07 ts
More Willing to Give Than We Are to Ask
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Heb11.6 NKJV
Of the many stories told about Alexander the Great, I like this one the best. A certain man approached the young king and asked if he would help him to pay off his debts. The king said he would and instructed the man to tell the treasurer to give him the sum he needed. But, when the man approached the treasurer and asked for such an enormous amount of money, the treasurer felt that he should check with the king before giving it to him. After Alexander heard how much money the man had requested, he instructed the treasurer to pay him at once. He explained that the man had paid him a singular honor and put it this way, “His request shows that he has understood both my wealth and my generosity.”
It suits my fancy to think of God in this way. I want to believe that He is generous beyond measure. I say I want to believe this because if I am honest with myself, my prayers do not reflect this. I think I am timid in prayer not because I doubt God’s wealth and generosity but because I doubt it toward someone like me. And that, is the point of my failing. God’s willingness to give is not because we are worthy of it, but because it is His very nature to be generous. God honors faith because faith honors God.
In my living room there is a picture hanging on the wall, a frame that encloses two simple words “Ask Him!” I find it humorous the number of times I have been absently staring at these words, worried or concerned about something, and then suddenly, as if on que, the words come into focus, “Ask Him!” I am sure that God is more willing to give, not only than we are willing to ask but even more than what we are willing to ask. 5/1/07 ts
Of the many stories told about Alexander the Great, I like this one the best. A certain man approached the young king and asked if he would help him to pay off his debts. The king said he would and instructed the man to tell the treasurer to give him the sum he needed. But, when the man approached the treasurer and asked for such an enormous amount of money, the treasurer felt that he should check with the king before giving it to him. After Alexander heard how much money the man had requested, he instructed the treasurer to pay him at once. He explained that the man had paid him a singular honor and put it this way, “His request shows that he has understood both my wealth and my generosity.”
It suits my fancy to think of God in this way. I want to believe that He is generous beyond measure. I say I want to believe this because if I am honest with myself, my prayers do not reflect this. I think I am timid in prayer not because I doubt God’s wealth and generosity but because I doubt it toward someone like me. And that, is the point of my failing. God’s willingness to give is not because we are worthy of it, but because it is His very nature to be generous. God honors faith because faith honors God.
In my living room there is a picture hanging on the wall, a frame that encloses two simple words “Ask Him!” I find it humorous the number of times I have been absently staring at these words, worried or concerned about something, and then suddenly, as if on que, the words come into focus, “Ask Him!” I am sure that God is more willing to give, not only than we are willing to ask but even more than what we are willing to ask. 5/1/07 ts
More Willing to Give Than We Are to Ask
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Heb11.6 NKJV
Of the many stories told about Alexander the Great, I like this one the best. A certain man approached the young king and asked if he would help him to pay off his debts. The king said he would and instructed the man to tell the treasurer to give him the sum he needed. But, when the man approached the treasurer and asked for such an enormous amount of money, the treasurer felt that he should check with the king before giving it to him. After Alexander heard how much money the man had requested, he instructed the treasurer to pay him at once. He explained that the man had paid him a singular honor and put it this way, “His request shows that he has understood both my wealth and my generosity.”
It suits my fancy to think of God in this way. I want to believe that He is generous beyond measure. I say I want to believe this because if I am honest with myself, my prayers do not reflect this. I think I am timid in prayer not because I doubt God’s wealth and generosity but because I doubt it toward someone like me. And that, is the point of my failing. God’s willingness to give is not because we are worthy of it, but because it is His very nature to be generous. God honors faith because faith honors God.
In my living room there is a picture hanging on the wall, a frame that encloses two simple words “Ask Him!” I find it humorous the number of times I have been absently staring at these words, worried or concerned about something, and then suddenly, as if on que, the words come into focus, “Ask Him!” I am sure that God is more willing to give, not only than we are willing to ask but even more than what we are willing to ask. 5/1/07 ts
Of the many stories told about Alexander the Great, I like this one the best. A certain man approached the young king and asked if he would help him to pay off his debts. The king said he would and instructed the man to tell the treasurer to give him the sum he needed. But, when the man approached the treasurer and asked for such an enormous amount of money, the treasurer felt that he should check with the king before giving it to him. After Alexander heard how much money the man had requested, he instructed the treasurer to pay him at once. He explained that the man had paid him a singular honor and put it this way, “His request shows that he has understood both my wealth and my generosity.”
It suits my fancy to think of God in this way. I want to believe that He is generous beyond measure. I say I want to believe this because if I am honest with myself, my prayers do not reflect this. I think I am timid in prayer not because I doubt God’s wealth and generosity but because I doubt it toward someone like me. And that, is the point of my failing. God’s willingness to give is not because we are worthy of it, but because it is His very nature to be generous. God honors faith because faith honors God.
In my living room there is a picture hanging on the wall, a frame that encloses two simple words “Ask Him!” I find it humorous the number of times I have been absently staring at these words, worried or concerned about something, and then suddenly, as if on que, the words come into focus, “Ask Him!” I am sure that God is more willing to give, not only than we are willing to ask but even more than what we are willing to ask. 5/1/07 ts
Epiphany
“…but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” Eph4.15 NKJV
I have experienced a few epiphanous moments in my Christian life. When these realizations dawn, one wonders why they did not see them before. One which stands out, came to me in church. The preacher was explaining the Lord’s Prayer, a familiar enough passage for me to be lulled into thinking that he would not tell me anything I didn’t already know. He made an observation which was simple enough, but one that I had never thought about. When he drew it to attention it was like an explosion of light and the fact that I had not seen it before was as revealing of some ugliness in me as it was to its own beauty. And what was this realization? Simply put, when Jesus commanded us to pray he did not tell us to say, Give me my daily bread, or forgive me my sins. Instead He instructed that when we pray, we pray not as an individual but as a collective. Give us our daily bread, Forgive us our trespasses. Just like that, I was awakened to my own self centeredness and to the realization of my connectedness to every other Christian. Even when I pray alone, I am praying as one cell among many. My personal growth cannot be separated from the growth of the body. I am to care as much for my brother’s bread as I do my own.
It is also sobering to realize that I may confess and ask forgiveness for another. Of course the Head is always directing the body to serve all the other parts. The heart and lungs cannot be in shape without the legs and feet, nor they, without the mouth and stomach.
This realization of course has changed the way I pray. I also often wonder who else am I hurting when I fail to abide in Christ or helping when I do.
I have experienced a few epiphanous moments in my Christian life. When these realizations dawn, one wonders why they did not see them before. One which stands out, came to me in church. The preacher was explaining the Lord’s Prayer, a familiar enough passage for me to be lulled into thinking that he would not tell me anything I didn’t already know. He made an observation which was simple enough, but one that I had never thought about. When he drew it to attention it was like an explosion of light and the fact that I had not seen it before was as revealing of some ugliness in me as it was to its own beauty. And what was this realization? Simply put, when Jesus commanded us to pray he did not tell us to say, Give me my daily bread, or forgive me my sins. Instead He instructed that when we pray, we pray not as an individual but as a collective. Give us our daily bread, Forgive us our trespasses. Just like that, I was awakened to my own self centeredness and to the realization of my connectedness to every other Christian. Even when I pray alone, I am praying as one cell among many. My personal growth cannot be separated from the growth of the body. I am to care as much for my brother’s bread as I do my own.
It is also sobering to realize that I may confess and ask forgiveness for another. Of course the Head is always directing the body to serve all the other parts. The heart and lungs cannot be in shape without the legs and feet, nor they, without the mouth and stomach.
This realization of course has changed the way I pray. I also often wonder who else am I hurting when I fail to abide in Christ or helping when I do.
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