Why Not Ask Correctly?

Why Not Ask Correctly

12/8/20

There are many verses and passages in the Bible that give reference to that God gives us the desires of our hearts and that all we need to do is ask.  While this is a specific and accurate statement that is repeatedly made, God also leaves out a timeframe in which He fulfills such requests, and there is a reason for this.  It is true that God is a wonderful and benevolent Father but it is His Will to see these gifts given used properly and for the advancement of His Kingdom.  How could God be considered all-loving if He continually handed out such requests and gifts without any type of responsibility attached to them?  Do you believe that these requests for certain items stop at that level alone?  God asks us today if we really understand what it took for Him to send His Son to the earth as a gift for all humanity's redemption and also to ask exactly what it means to give such a gift to someone that has not even been created yet?  When you place this type of authority in place, it can bring us into light exactly what needs to be done in order for our needs to be met.

For many of you that are in the late 40s upward, you will recall every November or so your parents would receive one or more of the department store catalogs, the Christmas edition.  How many of you, like myself, spent hours upon hours turning page after page of the toy section of those catalogs?  It was a time that I lived for and I could not tell you how many times I would go back and look at the pages I had marked and continue my dreaming about all of the things I wanted to have.  Of course, as most of you remember we would not receive all of the things that we "wanted" in those catalogs but our parents did try their best to provide at least one or two of begged for items.  I never really pouted when Christmas afternoon rolled around, for I was usually outside playing with the gifts I did receive and was proud of what I had received from Santa and family.  Being a grandfather now, I understand what joy it brought my parents to give, not only to us boys in the house but to as many other people we knew as possible for it is the act of giving that pleases the most.

How would I have felt if I had been granted every item that I wanted from those catalogs?  Would I be appreciative of those gifts or would I have taken them and placed them in some corner and never touched them again because I could only play with so many at a time?  I am so thankful that my parents taught me to work for the other items I wanted when I did not receive them as a gift from someone else.  It taught me the value of a gift and how I should keep my inner heart pure and on course so that one day I might ascertain such an item with total dignity and purity.  If you question this, just find a person who grew up with everything handed to them, and sit down with them and have a serious conversation about how they felt growing up versus their lives today I bet you will find an interesting story there and one that might surprise you as well about giving and receiving.

See, when someone wants something, really and truly wants something they will do whatever they can to earn it.  This process does not have to be just gifts or toys but it can be present and it should be present in relationships as well.  For when an empty heart gives something away it is meaningless to both the giver and receiver and its value is totally deflated, set aside, and not played with or paid attention to.  How many relationships have originated on this concept, and how many relationships have ended for the lack of participation between the two.  Think about this folks, for it is a nightmare of a problem in the world today because if when you look all around us and see all of the gadgets and stuff that we can obtain our divorce rates, murder rates, hate rates, and whatever type of painful conditions we can come up with has never been higher.  It is for this reason alone that God has His own timing of giving after we have asked for things, He wants to ensure that the gifts He gives us shall be used for His Glory at all times through the advancement of His Kingdom in our lives.

James 4:2-3

"Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume if upon your lusts."

The Scripture passage for this article gives us further proof that it is God's desire to provide us with all the things that we ask for, yet at the same time, He follows His own Word in how He grants us these askings.  We cannot forget that God is the God who sees your heart and wants your heart to be totally fulfilled but God also sees the wickedness of our hearts which would overpower the gifts that He gives us and until our hearts are in the obedient stage, we will continue to wait.  Look at what the beginning portion of this passage states that we have, do you actually believe God will give us happiness, and all other peaceful gifts while we are willingly living in lust after lust?  For the most part, we cannot get past the first few words of the first verse for if exposed the amount and depth of lust within our hearts is overpoweringly grotesque that all other emotions that we try to display are automatically overshadowed without even bringing attention to them.

The Greek word used here for lust is "epithymeite" which has a direct meaning of to long for, covet, lust after, set the heart upon.  All of these definitions have the significant meaning of a certain depth and drive that one will stop at nothing to achieve, to not take no for an answer, and will do anything to get what they want.  Superficially, this may sound like a true plan of desire but when you begin to use the word lust as a definition of your desires it means literally that you will do anything to obtain your goal.  Those obsessions may end up proving deadly or cost you so much in the end that your time and effort rewarded may fall away into the corner and lie motionless for its tenure in your presence, this is just a known human response to such predicaments.  It is not an honest pursuit in which all sides are weighed and taken into account before the first move is made or question asked.  But being humans and more specifically Americans, we believe that anything we ask for should be immediately granted to us without hesitation or thought processes involved.  God specifically says in this verse alone the reasons why you shall have nothing, without notice.

So tell me, what is the next logical step that humans do in order to obtain what they cannot have?  They kill for it.  This does not always mean that one may murder someone to grasp a lustful object but in this part of verse 2 that is exactly what James is saying to the people in order to get across to them that desires and asking from a lustful heart shall take away the life from someone else in order to try and get what they want.  Is it always the so-called wicked people that do not receive the gifts that they ask for or is it just the people who call themselves Christians that lack in this department.  It does seem like more often than naught, that people who have no idea about God receive more than their share than those who seem to deserve them more but there is a Kingdom Principle here that one cannot forget and that is when God gives a gift to one of His children it shall be used not only for a physical purpose but an eternal one as well and will not be quickly consumed by the world.  This is why it is so important that we remember why God gives us gifts and how we are to use them, for it is not just for our personal gain but to be used for His Kingdom to shed light on others first and foremost.

How many times have you heard a person that does not know God talk about how they use their gift for God?  Also, how many people who are Christians have you heard testify to others through these amazing gifts from God?  In all honesty, the percentages are probably very close to each other.  Look at all of the technological advances we have at our fingertips and all of the platforms that are being presented to the entire world through these devices and gadgets.  What percentage of these platforms are used to preach the Gospel to the world versus what promotes filth, lust, evil, and death?  None of these things mean anything or are sustainable unless they are used for God and His Glory.  I find it interesting that James addresses these issues way back in history not too long after Jesus left this earth, so one can imagine just how deep these selfish ideals of lust and killing have grown within our hearts.

You say I am being a tad harsh?  Am I being that way?  One final question to prove the point of God in this article and that question is this: What have you done with the Bible that you have in your house, your car, your work, or even the one that you take to church and sit on your backside in the pews?  What have you used this magnificent Word of Life for?  How many people have you boldly professed Christ to this past year while using the passages or single verses as references to answers that countless people are searching for?  You want to know why God is only speaking to a few people these days?  It is because we have been silent with the single most important gift from God for too long and God is sick of our lying to His face and it is time He begins to take away some of the gifts we dishonorably purchased.  Yes, I am talking to you Church, the world shall have its own devastation but ours shall be far greater because we have known the Truth and have done nothing with it.  This doing nothing with the gifts of God means they sit in the corner and gather dust while countless souls die in their sins and do the same thing in an eternal hell.

There is no question about it, the Bible is the perfect gift God has given us in order for us to know Him and to follow His Ways.  Yet, with a church building on almost every corner of cities and towns and Bibles present in the same amount of percentages in households, it seems like we have lost so much vital ground against our enemy, does anyone care to venture as to why?  It is for the same reason as to why we have not been granted the exact gifts from God that we have desired, we have accepted cheap imitations from the world and have run with them as a selfish gesture instead of a faithful countenance from God.  We have no intentions of using these gifts (the Bible) in the manner in which they were provided.  We cannot recite by heart some of the most meaningful Scripture verses nor can we give detailed reasons why John 3:16 should come out of our existence each and every day.  We do not deserve any further gifts from God, but we do deserve to be set right in our place according to what lies within our hearts.  Our prayers are superficial and dare to say that the majority of us have no idea how to pray fervently and in the spirit; or what those terms even mean.

Church, we are sick and are in worse shape than any other sickly human being who has the worst ever disease process.  We are eternally morbid and cannot even find our way out of the selfish mire that we have bought our way into.  No matter what, God still loves us and He still wants to give us proper gifts but not in the condition that we are currently in.  Therefore, unless we stop and repent at this VERY moment, our restoration plan from God is going to become severe enough that all the world shall notice and suffer along with us.  The only way to correct this setting is for us to repent and to ask God to change our hearts, NOW!  This is the first step in asking God correctly and if we do this in this manner God says He will be faithful and restore our hearts and then begin to grant our gift ideas.  God shall never waste His talents on those who will not turn to Him as their first line of advice, defense, love, and any other attribute He provides.  Study the Word of God folks for it is going to be the only thing that we can hold on to tight enough to get us through the times ahead, and if we do not know if well enough to know how to ask correctly then we are sunk.  God is in control, He loves us, and it is still His desire to give us things we just have to ask in the correct manner.

DLB