“Until now you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” — John 16:24
To the Full
Before we celebrated Christmas, I asked my girls and my wife what they wanted, and I was happy to provide, within reason. But oftentimes, when we ask God for something, it is self-serving. Why is that? Or we are sometimes afraid to ask for anything, so we just have some monologue time with the Lord, followed by an “amen.”
Jesus says in John 16:24 that if we ask, we will receive. In Matthew 7:7, He says that if we seek, we will find, and if we knock, the door will be opened. You see, the joy of asking is receiving, the joy of seeking is finding, and the joy of knocking is being in the Lord’s presence. The more we see Jesus as He sees Himself, the more we will just want to be with Him, and the less we will treat Him like some kind of cosmic Santa Claus.
The problem with most prayers is that our motives are not healthy and we ask for the wrong things — things that will only bring about temporal happiness instead of eternal joy.
“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 4:2-3
So how about we spend more time building on the foundation of Christ and being used to advance the Kingdom of Heaven, and less time building on sand trying to advance our kingdoms? When we do this, our joy will not be shaken or taken.
— Brian Hommel, Arizona Diamondbacks chaplain
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