What Are We Asking For?

There is one scripture that I’ve had to think about more than once:

¹⁴ And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. ¹⁵ And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for. 1 John 5:14-15 (NLT)

Now what I’ve read is, “since we know he hears us…we know that he will give us what we ask you”. Seems pretty simple to me. But then I have to look again. It is then I see I left out a very important part, “whenever we ask for anything that pleases him”. Then the lights come on, it’s not just an open invitation to pass out our wants, it has to be something that pleases HIM. Could that be why I have a list of things that have yet to be acted on?

Really that is true for most of us. We have a laundry list of requests that we put before the Lord and wonder why number 1, 3, and 7 are answered, but 2,4, 5 and 6 haven’t moved in any direction – stopped cold somewhere in heaven space. Could it be that those requests were not pleasing to him?

We answer back, “but Lord, they weren’t for me, I was praying unselfishly for ……..”. We walk away feeling rejected, without failing to see that possibly the prayers we were praying were not in the best interest of the kingdom building He is doing in each of our lives, or He has merely said, “not yet”?

Pausing to reflect upon our prayers is not a bad idea to do on a regular. There is inside of us still a desire to receive the things we want to receive and when we want to receive them. This is human nature. It is only as we mature and have more experience as a believer that we begin to understand that some prayer requests if answered would send us a serious rollercoaster ride. And we also learn that some prayer requests, while not answered now – may be in the future- so we learn to wait on God.

Does that mean we should not pray our heart’s desire. Absolutely not, God wants us to pray, and He wants to communicate with us about what we want, and more importantly what He wants for us. If we mark our a regular time to do that, we might find that God is even more generous in answering prayer, than we are in even asking – especially when it’s lined up with HIs will for our life.

³³ Seek the Kingdom ^]of Godabove all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. Matthew 6:33 (NLT)

Maria