What can we expect and ask from God?
Discussion question for August 12, 2011.
We talked about God repaying us when we forgive a debtor, and the promises that He will provide for our needs. How much or how little can we expect Him to provide? Is there a “holy lifestyle” that He funds, and how would it be defined? How valuable is the comment: “It doesn’t hurt to ask” in your relationship with God? How do you know if you are asking enough?
Here’s my summary of our discussion.
In His final discourse to the disciples, Jesus explained that we could ask anything of the Father, in His name, and it would be granted to us. We are qualified to ask for anything to the extent that we are one with Jesus. Using His name means to be identified with Him. Therefore, anything He would ask for is appropriate for us to ask for.
At the beginning of James 4 it talks about people that are selfish and struggling with internal battles. These are people that fight over the wrong things, and don’t get the right things. James says we have to ask, and that some will not receive because they are unwilling to ask. This goes along with Jesus’ teaching, that we have the right to ask anything of our heavenly Father. We are taking on responsibility and ownership when we ask, and it becomes obvious to us as well as to others.
James also says that sometimes we ask, but ask with wrong motives. He is specific about the wrong motive of wanting to spend what you get on your own pleasures. This means gratifying self, but not the self that is one with Jesus. When we maintain our identity separately from God, then we are at odds with Him.
God gives us the desire or our hearts. We discussed the difference between desire and temptation. Our lack or misery opens the door for temptation, which can be defined as reaching for something that pretends to satisfy a need when it really doesn’t. A desire, on the other hand, is something God puts in our heart as something we want, and it can be defined as something that certainly does satisfy.
We can expect God to give us the desires of our heart, and to be satisfied with the outcome. He is the provider of every good and perfect thing that comes down from the Father of lights. He does not give us the temptations of our heart, but in the temptation provides a real way through (1 Corinthians 10:13).
We learn to trust God to give us every good thing by experience. When we ask Him it reminds us that He is the only one that can provide. When He does in fact provide it, this builds trust. This also teaches us to trust His character, rather than the behavior. Whether it is in relationship to God or other people, we get into trouble with our perceptions and conclusions when we try to trust their behavior. We must only trust character, and then the behavior follows.
God has given us a spirit of power, not timidity (2 Timothy 1:7). With this spirit we are to boldly come before the throne of grace – the source of all gifts. When we come in the name of Jesus (just as He does), then we know that God will provide more than we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).
One example of this kind of living is the Apostle Paul. In his relatively short life, he walked in the power of the Spirit. He wrote the words of God, gave us wisdom through his letters, and demonstrated incredible power of God to heal and save. Some focus on the minor points of his life, such as the thorn in his flesh and the persecution, beatings, jail and martyrdom. The bigger impact of his life came for the fact that God’s grace (gifts) were sufficient for him. We continue to reap the benefits of his conversion, long after his life on earth.
As we meditate on scripture, spend time in prayer, and worship our Lord, we are likely to feel what He feels and desire what He desires. Everything He would ask of the Father, we should. We are the physical representation of His resurrected body and He is not done with His ministry on earth until it looks like the Kingdom of heaven. We should ask more.