Asking for what you need...Really!

ASK and you shall receive, SEEK and you will find, KNOCK and the door will be opened to you.

What an amazing statement Jesus made in in what is sometimes called the "Sermon on the Mount". I 've often asked God for what I thought I needed or for what I wanted.  How do you ask for what you really need?

My suggestion to you is "often". Lately my wife Carolyn and I are waiting at least three days before be buy what we think we need. After the third day we often realize we don't really "need" what ever it is and don't buy it. It gives us time to look at "the big picture" and I know our God really knows the "big picture" from the beginning of time to the end of time.

Jesus is said to have prayed three times for His Father to "remove the cup" he had been given: to die for our sins. Three times. Then he said, "not my will but Your will be done".  This is a prayer I believe he prayed every day, "Abba in Heaven, holy is Your Name, YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN..."'

How do we know what the Father's will is--REALLY?  Jesus said if we ask, really believing, really out of faith, it "SHALL BE GIVEN TO YOU".  Wow.  The Father's will seems to have to do with "Loving your neighbor as you love yourself". How much do you love yourself? Would you give your life for your neighbor?
Jesus did.

I had a duck when I was a little boy growing up in the Mojave desert in California.  One day I was playing with that duck and I by accident sat on it and killed it. I prayed and prayed that God would not let that duck die. Well it died. It was one really dead duck. I felt so sad and I cried and cried.  Why didn't God answer my prayer? I really believed he would raise up that duck. Did not God hear my prayer? I think so,  So it seems sometimes God's answer is 'NO' even when we pray in faith. It must not have been His "will" that that duck lives.  So what did seven year old Donny learn by all this? Ducks die when you sit on them. And if God doesn't think it's best that that duck comes back to life, it wont.

So why even bother?  It's not our will be done, it's God's will be done "on Earth as it is in Heaven".

I love Garth Brooks' song, "Thank God for Unanswered Prayer". It seems that part of what it means when we ask in faith, is trusting that God will do what's best, even if we don't like it.

I asked God to provide for the ministry of Life Connections. I really believe He is and He will. How and if  he does this is really up to Him.  I also ask you to pray with me that "God's will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day what we really need..."

That seems really worth asking for, don't you think?