Just ask...

Key thoughts from various messages on prayer...

God wants us to ask Him for whatever we need.

"Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. " (John 14:13-14)


"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you." (John 15:16)


"In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."  (John 16:23-24)


So does Jesus really mean anything?  Like as in ANYTHING?  No, of course not.  You may pray that you would be more powerful than God.  Denied.  You may ask that a certain sin would be okay just one day a week. Denied.  Obviously, the "whatever" that is underlined in the verses above are qualified by those parts of the verses that are bolded.


If the request will bring glory to God, fruit in our lives and joy to us through increasing the glory of God, then anything that meets those criteria will be answered.


However, there is an interesting link in these prayers with the purposes of God...


"In the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The LORD is my God.'" (Zechariah 13:8-9)


Ignore for the moment the specific context of which historical even this is referring to and focus on what God is saying.  The third that is saved, these are already His people.  They are the remnant.  They have just seen everyone else destroyed.  Yay for being saved right?  But then God immediately puts THEM into the fire, on purpose, to refine them and test them.  Why?  So that they will call upon God.  Why? So that He can answer them!


How important is it to God that we pray to Him, and not just pray to Him, but ask Him for help in our lives?  Very important!


Psalms 107 gives four illustrations of God's great lovingkindess towards His people.  In each of the four scenarios in the psalm, there are four stages: predicament, plea, deliverance, and thanksgiving.  The scenarios may simultaneously represent specific events, symbolic events in the life of Israel, and the situation that every sinner finds themselves in.  In every case, they did the same thing, 


"Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress." (Psalm 107:6,13,19,28)


In each case, nothing had changed in their circumstances.  They didn't try to "get it all worked out" first.  They just cried out to God where they were and He answered them.  How great is our God? He is incredibly great and marvelous!  In the words of verse 2 in Psalms 107,

"Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble." (Psalms 107:2)
Amen!  Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!