Ask Me

John 14:12-14 (ESV) “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

James 4:2-3 (NIV) “You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

When fundraisers ask people for money, a lot of time and energy and creativity goes into making the “ask”. How much time and energy and thought do we put into asking of God? On one side of the coin, there are those who don’t believe we should ask God for anything. After all, he provides for the birds and animals, and he knows what we need. Therefore, the thinking goes, he will give us what he wants to give. On the other side, there are those who ask God with motives that are either completely self-centered or strongly self-centered. God becomes a rich grandfather who gives us “stuff” because he loves us, and we just need to keep asking until he gives in. Both of these ways of thinking are clearly wrong based on Jesus’ teaching. Jesus tells us plainly to ask him, and he leaves the content of our asking open-ended. His only qualification for asking is that the Father would be glorified. This is the door that we need to walk through when we consider what to ask him, and it requires some careful thought and interaction with him.

So often we think we understand what would bring glory to God; however, as events play out we realize that we did not or that God’s plans took a few more twists and turns than we expected. Therefore, instead of assuming that we know what would bring him glory, we must pursue his heart and mind on the matter. We must ask the Lord to show us what would bring him glory and then listen to the Spirit and search the Word for his response. Many people don’t realize that it is hard work to listen to the Spirit. It takes self-discipline to calm our hearts and minds before him and allow him to speak to us. It takes diligence to pursue the Lord in the midst of life’s daily interruptions. Yet, we must pursue his mind on what would bring him glory because he has commanded us to ask. We don’t have because we don’t ask. If we don’t know what to ask, then how can we ask God? It takes character to search out the scriptures and to understand what the Lord is speaking to us through them. This character piece is called diligence. The Bereans were models of diligence because they searched the scriptures for truth. Could it be that we are not making the right ask of God because we fail to be diligent in our personal interaction with him through prayer and the Bible?

I am captured today by Jesus’ words, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do.” When I think of the kind of blank check that this promise represents, my pulse goes up and my mind starts to dream. However, there is another step we must take. We must count the cost of our requests to God. When we ask the Lord for something, often it will require us to make changes in our lives that we don’t anticipate and don’t want. Consider the scenario where we ask God for more money to provide for our family. The Lord may answer by having us cut our expenses or by providing more income-producing work for us. Rather than having money fall out of the sky, the Lord typically answers by providing opportunities for us to “reap what we sow.” With whatever we ask of God we must realize that his goal is to bring glory to himself. He is glorified as our lives and character reflect his character and nature. So when we ask of the Lord, let us be prepared to diligently seek out his heart and mind and let us be prepared for the changes, the adjustments that we need to make in order for God to receive all the glory.