Ask, and it shall be given you. Matt.7:7
God has ordained that prayer should be the means of blessing. He might in His sovereignty have chosen to work otherwise but in His loving wisdom He has planned that His people should co-operate with Him in the fulfilment of His designs. This lifts the godly exercise of prayer on a vey high plane, and we may say concerning any unfulfilled purpose of God that he is looking to us to ask Him to do it. This means that there are some things which we do not yet see because we have not yet asked, and today we are encouraged to ask with the promise that it shall be given us.
Obviously there are things which God cannot or will not give to His children; the giving of such answers would not be for the completing of the wise plans of our God and Father. Prayer is not the means by which wayward children may get all they want but the way by which the Sons of God may help prosper with eternal prosperity the best interests of the family of God. Within that wide sphere however prayer should be simple, sincere and expectant for God means His promises to be taken literally.
Today we are facing great problems in the world and in the Church; it may be that our own lives are themselves in desperate need. Let us therefore take to heart this little exhortation as God's answer to a healthier prayer life not just personally by corporately on behalf of the assembly. The Father loves us; He has ordained that we should draw largely on His power and wisdom; one reason for our poverty is that we have failed to ask; the Lord is bending down to hear us ask. Let is not be true of us today that we have not because we ask not.
In Luke 18:1 Jesus said, ". . .men ought always to pray and not lose heart", and then followed up with an appropriate parable on the need for persistence. Are some discouraged because they have lost heart, and therefore no not pray? What a privilege men are afforded to pray audibly in a corporate setting whether at the Lord's Supper of Prayer Meeting. The sisters also can pray silently on those occasions and the Lord is glorified as these prayers ascend to the throne of grace where He is pleased to respond according to his blessed will.
DKD
