“Ask, and the gift is yours. Seek, and you’ll discover. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. For every persistent one will get what he asks for. Every persistent seeker will discover what he longs for. And everyone who knocks persistently will one day find an open door.” Matthew 7:7-8 TPT
God encourages His Children to ask Him for blessings and to keep on asking.
In Zechariah 9:9 it says. “Rejoice for God is coming to bless you - riding on a donkey.” He promises He will come but it’s often slower than we would like. We want stallion speed but He often chooses to come at a donkey pace. Sometimes it’s so slow that it seems like God doesn’t care about what I’d asked Him for. But Praise God He always comes through.
There are times when God lifts us high up on a spiritual mountain and from there we can see our goal and desires clearly up ahead. But we then have to go down into the valley and keep on heading in that general direction with nothing in sight but the leading in our hearts. It’s as if we have gone down into the valley of the shadow of death, but He promises that He is still with us. It’s here in the darkness that our vision is tested and grows.
God is more concerned about our faith and character development than He is in answering our prayers straight away. He takes every opportunity to change us into the image of His Son and it’s normally through times of testing. The bible says that He enlarges us in our distresses. Psalm 4:1 (KJV)
In order to grow we need pressure. Ask any weight lifter and he will tell you that if you want bigger muscles you need to increase the resistance you’re dealing with. You can’t stay on light weights if you want to grow stronger, there has to be heavier lifts for your muscles to grow. God allows bigger pressures to come our way and it depends on how we handle them as to our growth.
In the valley of the shadow of death, hold fast to that which you saw on the mountaintop. Continue to believe in the dark when there are no signs and you can’t see your goal anymore. Remember what God originally said and press on, fighting the good fight.
What is it that you have asked God for? We need to not only ask God but also ask ourselves about what part we can play in its fulfilment. Here are some thoughts.
1. You may want an unsaved loved one to come into the Kingdom. How have you been going about it? Are you nagging them to change their ways? I have heard the prayers of some who have wanted their loved one to come to God and when I’ve gone around to their home and seen how they treat them, I can see why those persons have hardened their hearts to Jesus. Often the person that needs to change first is us.
2. We may want to become a BMOG or a BWOG. (A Big Man or Woman of God). Paul said the way to having more of the Spirit wasn’t in our works but in our faith.
Galatians 3:2 “This only would I learn of you, received the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”
It comes by faith. The bible tells us that faith comes by hearing the word of God. Prayer can’t give us more faith, the word does. “Faith COMES by hearing the word of God and in no other way.” How much of the word are you digesting?
3. Don’t despise the day of small things. If you want to be a preacher then be prepared to take Sunday School or serve first. Don’t think that going to Bible College is all that easy either. There is always a price to pay. When my wife and I went to Bible College I had to leave a very good art job, and go to another country with a small child, working in the afternoons to make ends meet.
4. You may want to get out of debt, but haven’t been sowing into the Kingdom, because you have no money. If we don’t give to God then He has nothing to work with. Even if you started by just giving a $1 seed, God will honour that and you reap what you sow.
5. Maybe you want to be healed and nothing is happening. There is also a part that we can play in this as well. Look into God’s instruction manual, the Bible, and see what He has to say about it.
“He sent His word and healed them.” Psalm 107: 20.
The bible also says, “A merry heart does good like a medicine.” Proverbs 17:22.
Keeping your sense of humour in this depressing world is also a vital exercise.
God does want all men to be saved, and for us to prosper and be in health as our soul prospers, but we also need to play our part.
“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” 3 John 1:2
