The Importance of Being Earnest: Ask, and thou shall receive?

One of the most frustrating things for me when I am sincerely asking for someone to pray for me is when that person says, "I will pray for God's will." To me it's like saying, "I will pray that the earth will spin." Well, of course, God's will will happen. Everything that happens on this earth is His will, the good, the bad, and the ugly! 

Don't get me wrong, the bible does say pray according to His will,

1 John 5:17 - And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

But notice it does not say, pray for his will, it says pray according to his will. There is a huge difference. He is asking for us to realize that when he says no, it's not in His will, but for goodness sakes ask, and ask fervently. 

I know semantics shamantics, but the difference is because there is power in prayer. Yes, His will will happen whether we pray, but He wants us to talk to Him. He wants us to ask Him. He wants us to seek answers. He doesn't want us to blindly say, "God do your will." There is no emotion in that, there is no power. We need to sincerely and earnestly ask Him. 

Believe it or not, He does listen. So can we change His Will through prayer, begging, beseeching Him? No, we do not have that power, but He does. So will He change His will? Why yes! 

Look at 1 Samuel, when the people were asking for a King. It clearly states that God's will for His people, was to have God as their ruler, so having a human king did not fit into that mold. But God heard the people and he provided a king for them, with the exact specifications of what they wanted. What they learned is that it was not exactly what they wanted. 

This is probably not the best example, since it was God giving people a second rate future to what He had planned, but in the end God used all of this for His purpose.

Some people read such verses as, 

John 14:13 - And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

and misinterpret it to mean, He will say yes, if only we seek Him fully, have enough faith. Yet reread the verse carefully and notice the last part of that, "That the Father may be glorified in the Son." He answers yes, when He can be glorified. If saying yes will serve less eternal resilience than saying no, he will say no. His reason for answering yes to our prayers is for the eternal good of our souls, not the temporary comfort of our bodies.

Another slightly misunderstood verse is:

Matthew 17:17 - Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

People often read this verse and not the rest of the chapter. If you read slightly further you can see that God does promise to give you what you ask for, but he's specific about what kind of things he is referring to: 

Matthew 7:7-11 “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 the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are 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!

He's not saying, I will say yes to any prayer you ask, but he is saying, if you sincerely ask for help, for a need, he will answer it. It's not always going to be the answer you are hoping or expecting, but the answer He will give you is good. 

I know it's heart breaking when someone dies, especially when you've been praying earnestly for their healing, but we only understand our worldly lives, not the eternal nature of our souls. God will bless you for your prayers, He will give you the help you were seeking, He will give your loved one the help they were seeking, but for the good of our souls not our bodies. Sometimes, what is best for our eternal soul is not comfortable to our earthly bodies or our earthly hearts and desires. 

Another powerful verse that explains this, and is quite humbly is James 4:3:

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Also God wants us to be persistent. Yes, he wants us to spend every waking moment asking him for our desires. He also honors persistence. 

Luke 18:1-8 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'"

 He wants us to turn to Him with our concerns, our hopes, our dreams. He wants us to "pray without ceasing." (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Time after time in the bible He asks us to ask. And not just to ask, but be specific such as His call for those to pray over the sick and prayer to be forgiven for sin. 

James 5:14-15 - Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

Proverbs 28:13- He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but who so confesseth and forsaketh [them] shall have mercy.

We often worry first, pray second. I know I am guilty. Even when we initially go to God in prayer, we still try to fix the problem ourselves and not spending our time truly and earnestly in prayer. He wants us to turn to Him. Just as we want people to turn to us, talk to us, spend time with us, these are His desires. So my point is, we need to ask God, be specific, and not rely on platitudes and sayings when we address the sincere prayer requests of our loved ones, but truly search our heart and compassion and pray on their behalf sincerely.