Guest post by Sophia Louise McCrary
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7:7-11 Our Lord promised us that if we ask we will receive. Yet, there have been many times in our lives that we asked and we received, well, nothing. Or, perhaps something did happen, but it certainly wasn’t what we asked for. What went wrong? He promised. Did He change His mind in this instance? No. The problem is not with Him. He will never change His mind or break His promise in a certain situation, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”(Hebrews 13:8). The problem is with us. The problem is with our limited understanding of God and His words, and our lack of faith. You see, we see it as if we asked for bread and God gave us a stone. But, in actuality we have asked for moldy bread and, instead God has given us good bread. At some times we are more aware of the fact that we are doing this than at others. Often we don’t realize we are asking for moldy bread. We seek to ask for good things, things that would please God and are in accordance with His will, and many times they aren’t bad things. They’re good things. But, God has even greater plans that we cannot yet see or comprehend. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”(Isaiah 55:8-9) Often, in these cases where we are asking for moldy bread God turns our plans completely around, showing us the good bread He wishes to give us. This is not a reason to grumble, but to rejoice. At other times we’re a bit more conscious of having asked for moldy bread. We’re not necessarily asking for bad things. Some of the things we ask for aren’t bad, but we are not truly doing all that He asks of us-in faith. Our view of God is limited by the influence of the world on us. We fear that if we ask for too big of things God will not feel like granting it and we will be left hanging. So, instead of coming before the Throne Room of Grace with our petitions, even those that the world deems impossible, trusting that if things do not come to pass exactly as we have asked it is because God has even greater plans that we cannot yet see, we settle for a counterfeit version. We ask for small things thinking that we will get them and at least we will have something. It takes great faith to ask for impossible things and many of us don’t have that type of faith. We really don’t want to do anything that we have to step out in faith for, because, to us it feels as if we are walking on thin ice. Ice which might hold us or might not. In our generation we would rather walk by sight than by faith. We would prefer to do things that only require us to rely on our own strength and our own abilities, or perhaps slightly beyond them. As long as we don’t mess up too bad, things will be fine. We’ll pray to God in these situations and we’re comfortable, because we think we’re in control. As a side note I want to mention that when we pray for things just for our personal gain and to boost our agenda we will not receive. In James it says that “you ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures”. When you ask for something just for your own personal gain and try to say that God broke His promise that is, in fact a ridiculous claim. Please, also remember that when God seems silent it is a test. The teacher is always silent during the test, watching, waiting, seeing what you will do. It’s not about asking for big things to show that we’re “trusting God”. It’s about completely surrendering to God, crying out to Him in prayer in the big things and the little things, believing that He is able and He is faithful, and that if what comes to pass is different than what we asked for it is because we have a God that is greater than we are. He is not failing us and giving us a stone. We have asked for moldy bread and He is giving us good bread.
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Hi! I'm Savannah Jane...I'm the author of several books for children and young adults with a passion to encourage young people to live for Jesus. The third born in an amazing family of seven children, I was homeschooled all the way through. This is where I share encouragement for Christian girls, updates about my books, writing tips, book and movie reviews, and assorted other tidbits. Archives
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Quote"When I try, I fail. When I trust, He succeeds."
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