Just Ask!

What are you looking for? Is it a sense of purpose? Your identity? Confidence? Or maybe you just feel like you don’t belong, don’t fit in, and you are longing for that connected sense of community. Today, we talk about the things that drive us to search for more and how scripture gives us instructions on how to get it.

Open up your Bible to the book of Matthew, chapter 7.

Matthew 7:7-11 states, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

The order this is written in is Ask, Seek, Knock. The first letter of each word also spells out the word “ASK.” But Jesus drives home this point further when He says how, even we, who are born into this broken world and sinful by nature, know how to give good gifts to our children, then how much more will our Father in Heaven, who is perfect and perfectly good, give good gifts to those who ask Him!

There are three steps here. First, it’s asking. The title I believe He delights in the most, and the one Jesus uses most often, is Father. He’s the God of all creation, yet instead of creating minions and slaves, He chooses to relate to us as a father and protector. He has a father’s heart and desperately wants to spend time with his children.

If you’re a parent, I’m sure you can relate, as I know I can. How many times have our children done something or gotten upset about something, and when we get down to the root of it, tell them, “Well, why didn’t you say something? Why didn’t you just ask me? I would have done it for you. I would have given it to you! But you didn’t ask!”

Of course, the difference is that God already knows everything that’s on our hearts and minds. Yet He still wants us to approach Him and ask Him for it. So the next time you’re searching for answers, go to the One who has all the answers and just ask.  “For everyone who asks receives.”

However, there is a caveat. James 4:2-3 writes, “You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong–you want only what will give you pleasure.”

Jealousy is a human emotion that I am sure every single one of us has felt at one point or another in our lives. We want what someone else has. You see this with kids all the time. There’s a running joke in our family that, even among the cousins who are around the same age, whatever you give to one child, you have to give the exact same thing to all the others. Like, it can’t even be the same thing in a different color. Because they’re going to want what the other has. We are literally born this way.  But we don’t have to stay this way. Covetousness is a sin. “Do not covet” is the 10th commandment. Yet we are all born with varying degrees of this sin. 

Oh, but here’s where it gets good. Adam and Eve–when they sinned in the garden–they hid. As if God didn’t already know what they had done. But they hid because they knew they shouldn’t have done it, and God came into the garden and said, “Adam, where are you?” Again, it’s not like God didn’t know exactly where Adam was. He wasn’t losing at a game of hide and seek here. But He was waiting for Adam to approach Him.

There is absolutely nothing that you could ever do, think, say, or feel that God can’t handle or that God doesn’t already know. Yet we, especially Christians, know that we shouldn’t feel this way, so we don’t bring that emotion to God. We feel like we have to fix it and clean ourselves up before we can approach God. Instead, I imagine Him as a dad, looking at us in our mess and just slowly shaking his head, saying, “What are you doing? Let me help you!”

See, we cannot help our emotions. Every emotion we have is valid–it’s how we are feeling in that moment. Don’t try to hide it. Deal with it. Because it’s not the emotion itself that’s wrong–be it jealousy or anger or feelings of lust. It’s what we do with the emotion that matters. Are we going to act on and release this emotion in a constructive or destructive way? And, honestly, most of us are going to lean toward destructive by default. It’s only when we bring those difficult emotions to God and say, “This is how I’m feeling. I don’t want to feel this way.” Or maybe it’s even thoughts accompanying that emotion. Like, “I really want to throw a rock through my neighbor’s car window. I know I shouldn’t. But I can’t stop thinking about it after what he did to me.”

I mean, God is not only your dad; He’s your counsellor. Jesus is called “Wonderful Counselor.” Then in John 14:26, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Counselor and the Advocate. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are your two advocates. They’re your two counselors. 

Think of an advocate in a courtroom. They stand up for you. They represent and defend you. The Holy Spirit guides, defends, and counsels you here on Earth in all you do, and then we have Jesus, who defends us when we approach the courtroom of Heaven. In Revelation 12:10, it says Satan accuses us day and night before the throne. So, I mean, knowing that, if I have an emotion or a feeling that I know needs to be dealt with, or I’ve done something wrong and sinned against God. You bet your bottom the enemy’s already there, pointing fingers at you and going, “Look! Look at what they did!” 

So that’s when you talk with your two advocates, approach God with Jesus, for “no one gets to the Father except through Christ.” And Jesus will advocate on your behalf. Bring the hard things to God, and repent from your sins–say, “Lord, I really messed up. I want to be in right standing with you. I don’t want to do it again. Help align me with your will. Help me to get rid of this jealousy I feel and help me to be content with all that you have already provided for me and help me to walk the path and in the provision that you have set for me.” And Jesus will stand up for you and say, “It’s covered by my blood. Bought and paid for in full at the cross.” 

Like, man, is that good or what? 

So, the first thing to getting what we want is to approach God and ask Him for it. But first, we need to get our hearts aligned with His. We need the help of the Holy Spirit to reveal those areas within us that need work. How? We ask Him to reveal and heal. If you ask, you will receive. Then, we need to ask God for forgiveness. Repent (which is just a fancy word for being genuinely sorry and making a heartfelt commitment to do the right thing from here on out). Ask God for help with this and for forgiveness, and He will give it to you!

The next step is to actively seek Him. When you are seeking righteousness and you are seeking God, everything else will fall into place. Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.” Other translations say, “and all these things will be given to you.” Or, in the New Living Translation, “and He will give you everything you need.” This verse is given in the context of not worrying about tomorrow–what you will eat or wear. God will provide everything you need… as long as you are first seeking Him and seeking to be made right with Him. 

Jesus isn’t a genie. God isn’t Santa Claus. Your prayers should not sound like your Amazon wish list. When you come with this heart posture of truly yearning for more in your soul–a deeper purpose, a sense of identity. Maybe you feel like you’re not living life as fully as you could be or should be. So you search the scriptures, and you seek out this “something more” – this abundant life that he has promised you. 

Then what you will find is who God is. 

And that. Changes. Everything!

Finally, when you’ve asked Him through prayer and you’ve sought the Lord and His righteousness, then when you knock, doors will be opened for you.  You can finally step into your calling. Step into your new identity in Christ. Step into your purpose. And walk in that abundant life you’ve always yearned for.