I would venture to say that everyone, regardless of what you believe or where you stand on current issues, is experiencing some form of dissatisfaction. We are dissatisfied because we have genuine and tangible needs that are going unmet. But dissatisfaction breeds action. And the action we take determines whether we experience joy. Don’t miss this opportunity.
We are shown a picture of a Father who prepares and provides for His children from creation. Adam was not created and then told to cultivate a garden. God created a fully loaded garden that was ripe for productivity and multiplication. Then He placed Adam in it. Not the other way around. God knows what we have need of before we ask. So why don’t we have it?
The answer is twofold. First, we are given instructions. God told Adam, eat anything except one particular tree. But disobedience will rob you of the blessing every time. He gave similar instructions for Moses to give to the people. Deuteronomy 28:1-2 says,” “If” you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you “if” you obey the Lord your God.” (My emphasis)
To receive what we are asking for means we are living a life according to God’s instructions. We have surrendered our lives for the Kingdom of Christ and no longer live to fulfill the selfish desires of our flesh. We have died to ourselves, and we now live unto God. Living this way opens the doors to answered prayers and invites the supernatural to invade your natural. It gains access to the “already prepared for us” blessings that simply need asking for, which leads to the second reason.
We must ask! When Jesus was talking to the woman at the well in John 4, He said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” If you really knew who He was, you would ask Him. He has the gift-ready. He comes prepared. He simply needs you to ask.
James 4:2 tells us that “yet ye have not, because ye ask not.” Then in John 16:24, we’re told, “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” Some translations even say, “ask largely!”
John 14:12-14 says, 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
Those verses sum it all up. If we live as Christ lived and ask, we will have what we ask for, bring glory to God, and our joy will then be complete. Don’t resign yourself to complain about what you are seeing or experiencing. Don’t go without. Ask God and follow His instructions.
If you need to repent for disobedience, then repent. Turn from the old way and start fresh today. He is faithful and just and will forgive you. He will help you start again just like He did for the woman at the well. She ran to tell the good news with joy. She was free from her past and now had a future, and so do you. He’s waiting right now. Ask for what you need. Follow His instructions see what God will do.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Jaime Luce
