What are you asking for?

Persistently Seeking the Lord

Matthew 7:7-8 (AMP)

Ask (and keep on asking) and it will be given to you; seek (and keep on seeking) and you will find; knock (and keep on knocking) and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking, it will be opened.

How do you feel about asking God…for everything?

• When you ask, are you apologetic or fearful?

• Do you only ask for small things?

• Do you ask for very few things?

• Do you ask at all?

How are we supposed to ask?

Hebrews 4:16 says to "Come boldly to the throne.”

When you were a kid and you wanted something from your dad, did you start by saying how unworthy you were to even ask? Did you creep up to his easy-boy chair, grovel on the floor, beg for a toy....and then hope that he heard you?

Unless you had a very abusive father, it’s highly doubtful this was your approach.

The Lord also says - "Except ye become as little children...”

• How many times a day does your 5-year-old ask you for something?

We have the living God. Ask Him; He is open, accessible, and alive. Be yourself before God. He wants to have a personal relationship with you. Present your problems and your desires to Him every day. Dream big. The God who made the entire Universe with an outstretched arm can surely meet your needs according to His riches in glory.

Beyond Asking for Stuff

Today, there is a popular theology often referred to as the Prosperity Gospel. This is excerpted from a section about the Prosperity Gospel from the Online Encyclopedia Britannica:

Beginning in 1906 with the work of William Walker Atkinson (Thought Vibration: or, The Law of Attraction in the Thought World) and advanced in 1910 by Prentice Mulford (Your Forces and How to Use Them), the ‘new-agey’ concepts were started, espousing that positive thinking and positive speech will bring wealth, health, and the fulfilment of all your worldly desires. All you have to do is ask and focus on what you want, and The Universe will deliver.

Many ‘self-help’ books of the 20th century promulgated these concepts, including Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (1937), The Power of Positive Thinking by the Protestant minister Norman Vincent Peale (1952), You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay (1984), and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (2006), each selling millions of copies.

It was televangelist Oral Roberts who became known as the first mainstream proponent of the Prosperity Gospel. Most notably, and perhaps the most widely known within prosperity gospel circles, is Joel Osteen. The senior pastor at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, the services are attended by approximately 45,000 faithful every week, and the messages are live-streamed to more than 100 countries. Osteen preaches that “It’s God’s will for you to live in prosperity instead of poverty.”

A Different Perspective

Jesus said:

Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matt. 6:33)

What does it mean to seek God’s righteousness?

Dictionary.com defines righteousness this way:

Righteousness is the quality of being virtuous, honorable, or morally right. It can also refer to such behavior. Righteousness is the noun form of the adjective righteous. Being righteous means doing what is right—obeying or adhering to morals and moral laws.

I read a lot of commentaries on the interpretation of this verse to get to this: Seeking God's righteousness means seeking to be more like Him. We are to seek to live a life and lifestyle devoted to God, with a sincere heart. This is what Jesus taught throughout His entire ministry, but especially described throughout Matthew 5-6-7, His Sermon on the Mount. If we seek to be more like Him, God will make provision for whatever it is we truly need in order to accomplish His will.

When Jesus says to Ask, Seek, Knock - repeatedly, persistently - He’s encouraging us to keep digging to find a deeper relationship with the Father. He’s teaching us that when we seek Him persistently, we will find Him. He’s beseeching us to knock until the door swings wide open and we are embraced by the full magnitude of the Father’s love and generosity.

When we do this, the worldly things we seek become less important. We will discover that by seeking Him first, our treasures will be eternal and in heaven, where they will not rust and will not be destroyed by moths (Matt. 6:20). By first seeking Him, we will please and be pleasing to God. His gifts to us will be overflowing and beyond even knowing what to ask for.

Keeping our eyes fixed on the Heavenly prize - to become more and more like Jesus - is really exhilarating! It makes “asking” for a car, a house, a new job, a baby - seem much less important; in fact, it’s nearly irrelevant in comparison!

Today’s Prayer:

Dear Lord, thank You that we can ask…and that You hear our prayers. You know what is heavy on our hearts. You know what makes us happy, what causes us to worry. You know us so intimately, You have even numbered the hairs on our head. You have told us that we ‘have not because we ask not’.

Today, we come with a humble heart and the exuberance of a 5-year-old child. We ask for our heart’s desires: financial security, health and healing, a loving relationship, and the restoration of our country to the place where we can say, “In God We Trust.”

But far more than asking for worldly possessions, we ask to give us the strength and inspiration to first seek You. Place the desire in our hearts so that we FIRST want to become more Christ-like every day. In thankfulness and in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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