Hello Everyone,

When we understand God’s heart for us we can see that God is generous in His giving (Matt. 7.11):

¹¹If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

If human fathers can give appropriate gifts to their children, then how much greater can our heavenly father do?
He is able to bless us with more than we can ever imagine.
Remember Solomon who prayed for wisdom and was given wisdom but also riches and honor (cf. 1 Kings 3.13).
Why are we not given what we ask for then, at times?
First of all did we ask in faith (James 1.6-7)?

⁶But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;

Mark tells us to believe that we will receive what we pray for (11.24).

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

We are to “pray as if the desired blessing has already been received”.

Did we ask with sin in our lives (1 Pet. 3.12)?

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

Did we ask with wrong motives to satisfy our lusts (James 4.3)?
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Did we ask according to the WILL of God (1 John 5.14)?

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Remember the country song Unanswered Prayers?
Our prayers are answered but sometimes that answer is NO, NOT NOW BUT LATER, etc.

Remember Jesus who prayed for the cup to be removed but that the Father’s will be done and the cup was not removed (Luke 22).
Remember Paul who prayed for his thorn in the flesh to be removed but it was not (2 Cor. 12).
As one writer wrote, “True prayer is asking God for what He wants.”

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil