"You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."
James 4:2b,3 (NIV)
My daughter, Phoebe, is at that fun age where all she does is ask Wanda and I question after question - can I have this can, I have that, can so and so come over, can I go over there? She phones me on my cell as soon as she gets home from school and the questions start. I call it the fun age, because there will be an age where she won’t even talk to me (based on my experience with her older siblings).
Our Lord tells us that we have a Heavenly Father and that we are little children to Him, and that we are to ask Him with shameless audacity (vs8) (now there’s a word that describes my Phoebe). What have we asked God for today? Have you asked Him for forgiveness, for peace, for faith? Have you asked Him for a miracle in your marriage or in your relationship with your parents or siblings? Have you asked Him to bring a loved one into the kingdom, or to deliver a loved one out of a life of sin? Oh friend have you asked for healing from pain, disease or injury? Have you asked for a job, for money, for safety? For food, for a spouse, for life itself? How about for the Holy Spirit? Have we asked Him to fill us with His Spirit, with the River of Life? Have we asked Him for a glimpse - no more than a glimpse - have we asked Him to show us the glory of His One and only Son?
How did we become so “self-reliant”, so “grown up”, so removed from our loving Heavenly Father that we never talk to Him, let alone ask Him for anything?
Oh Heavenly Father forgive us for our silence. Teach us to seek your face in the morning, to seek your face in the noon time, and to seek your face in the evening. Teach us to ask with “shameless audacity” and yet to ask with “pure motives”. Teach us to pray! Teach us to pray!
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