HELEN SANDERS
5-6-2020
YOU HAVE NOT BECAUSE YOU ASK NOT
I remember my kids when they were little. They were always asking me about something. It wasn’t always big things, but they would ask. Sometimes it was questions. I worked for a company that sold a product called “Childcraft, the How and Why Library.” It helped me answer those difficult questions like “why is the sky blue.” It is in our nature to want to “know things and ask for things.”
God does not want us “in the dark” about Him or our lives. In James 1:5 it says,
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
God wants us to be in the know. Verse 6 tells us we are to ask in faith, expecting to receive. The problem comes when we doubt that God will answer. We teeter totter back and forth. This is called being double-minded. Verse 8
says “a double-minded man is unstable in ALL his ways.”
All? Yes, it says all. We have to ask and expect to receive when we ask.
I remember when I was new in the things of God and asking for Him to supply my needs. I would ask for a parking place, and it would be there. I would ask for many things, and the supply would come. Someone told me God was too busy to answer the “little prayer” needs that I had, but I decided if I would give my own children what they asked for because they trusted me, that I could trust God to meet my needs both big and little also. He has never let me down. It may not have been the way I expected, but His plan for me has always been good.
In James 4 it tells us where wars and fightings come from.
Lust.
It says in verse 2-3 “
Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume if upon your lusts.
”
God will not give to a lustful heart. He knows it is not good for you. The kind of asking I am speaking of is asking God to meet your needs, and the needs of your loved ones, not lustful asking.
In Matthew 7:7 it says,
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened
.”
V. 11 says
“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him.
The motives behind our asking will determine the answer. There will always be an answer, yes, no, or not now. God wants the best for his children, just like we as natural parents do. He is the King of the Universe and wants to give his children gifts. If you are asking and not receiving, there are two reasons why you aren’t yet receiving. Firstly, it may be a lustful desire that God knows wouldn’t be good for you. (You wouldn’t give a four-year old a motorcycle) The second reason is timing. It might not be the right time, but if you have peace when you ask, wait in expectancy for it to happen. Remember, Joseph had a dream at 17 about his sheaves, and it took 27 years for it to come to pass. David was anointed three times before he became King of Israel. Paul was Saul before he became the powerful man that changed lives through Asia minor.
Ask, and expect God to come through. Don’t give up.
