Asking Our Father

Read Matthew 7:7-11 

Years after it happened, our son told us about some bullying he’d experienced in middle school. We hurt for him, but we also wondered, “Why didn’t you share this with us before? Maybe we could have helped somehow!” Fathers and mothers want their kids to communicate about their joys and sorrows, dreams and needs. “Please talk to me; please ask me!” is the parent’s plea.

On the mountainside, Jesus is speaking to people in need of physical healing or with spiritual yearning—or both. He offers a promise: “Ask and it will be given to you.” Isolated from other Scriptures, this might seem like a “blank check.” Can we ask God for anything and receive it?  

Jesus does promise, “Ask and it will be given to you.” But then He explains prayer in the context of parents and children: “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” The parent wants the child to ask, and wants to grant good gifts. Jesus is urging us to approach the Father boldly, to pour out our hearts to Him. It’s true that the Father “knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8), yet He yearns for us to present our requests to Him (Philippians 4:6). Rather than burying our hurts or longings, or assuming that God can’t or won’t help us, we must ask.

Can we ask for anything? Advocates of a “prosperity gospel” say “Yes”—with an emphasis on health, wealth, and power. But prayer is not a cosmic vending machine, where we insert requests and receive whatever we want. How foolish and arrogant that would be, when God’s wisdom is so much greater than ours! He is our Father, but also the ruler of the universe! He is not forced to grant our requests, and we will not always understand His answers. We beseech humbly, knowing that our Father in heaven will “give good gifts to those who ask him.” 

One thing we can ask for is help with prayer. Jesus says that one request our Father will grant is the good gift of the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13). This is wonderful news, because “we do not know what we ought to pray for” but “the Spirit helps us in our weakness” (Romans 8:26). With the Spirit’s aid, our growing desire for the Father’s will can shape our hearts as we ask, seek, and knock.

FOR REFLECTION:

• How easy is it for you to truly be honest with God about what you really want in life? How have the desires of your heart changed throughout your time following God?  

by Susan Gilliland