Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8).Many times we do not have something simply because we have never asked for it.
How many times did you gripe because you didn’t have something and your parents, maybe, or someone else would say, Well, you never asked for it.
Self-reliance only goes so far we need to let God and to let others know when there is a need.
On the other hand, God is not an order-taker. No matter what some say, he does not stand at a counter just waiting for you to “claim your miracle.” He wants you to have the best and all, but it is not necessarily in his will for you to have a rich lifestyle.
And sometimes it is not in his will for you to have healing, no matter who many times you ask.
In 2 Corinthians 12, the apostle Paul said that he had received a tremendous gift from God. Jesus had appeared to him and taught him things that no one is permitted to tell.
But there was a price to pay. Paul was sick in some way. He said, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (12:7-9)
Paul needed but God did not give. I do not know why, except to think that maybe Paul would have been arrogant to have been so blessed by God if he did not have something to remember that it was God at work in him. The Lord wanted him to know that it was God who had given him this stuff because he needed him for a work. It was not Paul who got it because he was so great.
The Lord gives us the opportunity to tell him our needs and loves us enough to listen. But he does not necessarily give it to us. It depends on what his will is.
That is a paradox. He says on the one hand, if you need something ask. On the other hand he says, when we ask, no.
It is his will that he works and pursues. He loves us and wants to hear what we want or need. But at the same time, he is God and will do what he needs to do.
When he turns you down, remember the love he has for you.
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