Law Of Prayer

SCRIPTURE

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.”

~Matthew 7:7, NLT

QUOTE

The law of prayer is to ask.

~George W. Truitt

Matthew 7:7 is an imperative, not a suggestion: it is like a command. I fully concur with Dr. Truitt, the law of prayer is to ask. I do a lot of asking when I pray but I do not feel like a powerful intercessor. I think of what James said in chapter 4 of his epistle….Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.” Then I get to wondering if my asking is selfish. I have noticed my tendency to do more asking than praising or thanking. Oswald Chambers sheds some light on my dilemma, “You will never receive if we ask with a certain result in mind, because you are asking out of our lust, not out of our poverty. A pauper does not ask out of any reason other than the completely hopeless and painful condition of his poverty.”

Begging is a fine art these days. It is not what it was a hundred years ago or even fifty. Beggars today are very specific but I do understand what Chambers is saying, a true beggar ask for anything you are willing to give. He does not declare terms but begs your mercy. I am not saying that it is wrong to be specific but when in doubt we can ask God to give us what He wants us to have. He may very well be answering more of my prayers than I realize because He is not doing what I expect. The Jews prayed for a Messiah and God answered their prayer. He sent a Messiah and they didn’t recognize Him because He was not what they expected.

• 238 Sunday night…I knew we had a crowd and consumed 350 burgers but I didn’t know it was that many. Think how many we would have had if some of our regular folks had not stayed at home.
• We have reached our Guatemala goals so we start on BLOCK PARTY this Sunday. We are not early on this, we have only 8 Sundays to raise $8,000. I believe that where God guides He provides: may His will be done. “LORD, give us what you want us to have.”
• The GATHERING this Wednesday night at 6:30. Tyler Beck will be leading our Praise and Worship on Wednesday nights this Summer. David will continue to lead on Sundays.
• I fear that with the passing of VBS that this Summer will fly by with School beginning way too early at August 6th.
• Posted some new top tens yesterday if you want to check them out.
• Anna Shaneyfelt will be seeing a doctor in Huntsville tomorrow.