Ask, and It Will Be Given to You

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” (James 1:5, ESV)

Charles Spurgeon was one of the most confident prayer warriors I know of. Reflecting on prayer, he said: “Oh, that every Christian enterprise were commenced with prayer, continued with prayer, and crowned with prayer! Then might we also, expect to see it crowned with God’s blessing. So once again I remind you that our Savior's example teaches us that, for seasons of special service, we need not only prayers of a brief character, excellent as they are for ordinary occasions, but special protracted wrestling with God like that of Jacob at the brook Jabbok, so that each one of us can say to the Lord, with holy determination, ‘With thee all night I mean to stay, And wrestle till the break of day.’  
 
When such sacred persistence in prayer as this becomes common throughout the whole Church of Christ, Satan’s long usurpation will be coming to an end, and we shall be able to say to our Lord, as the seventy disciples did when they returned to him with joy, ‘Even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.’”

How could Spurgeon be so confident in prayer? Such confidence flows from an understanding of what the Lord Himself teaches us about prayer in Scripture. Therefore, allow me to remind you of a few Scriptures for your consideration and contemplation.
 
We are His children (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!”

Jesus glorifies the Father by answering prayers offered in His name (John 14:13-14).  “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

When we are living in God’s will, our prayers will be answered (John 15:7). “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Also, 1 John 3:21-22 “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.”
 
If we ask according to God’s will, He hears us (1 John 5:14). “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” (So, it is not as if God gives us a blank check!)

If He hears us, then we have what we ask for (1 John 5:15). “And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
 
These are not all the Scriptures that should give us confidence in prayer, but they are sufficient for our consideration and contemplation. It is amazing to consider that we are children of the living God who came to the Father through the Son. Since the Father delights in His one and only Son, He also delights in us who have been adopted through the Son. And if He does not withhold any good thing from His Son, He will not withhold any good thing from us. After all, He has already given us the greatest treasure—Jesus Christ, the beloved. Why would He withhold anything else?

Let’s give ourselves to prayer then – as Christians, as a church. For our heavenly Father delights in listening to his children ask for what they need to endure in faith and joy in this world.

Love,