Ask...and It Shall Be Done

May 17

“Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him,” Mark 7:32.

How many of us have begged Him to put His hand on someone we love and cause His healing balm to flow through them? How many of us have walked away from our prayer disappointed and diminished in faith?

The reality is that Jesus does heal today. The Word of God tells us that “He is the same yesterday, today and forever,” Hebrews 13:8; that there is “no shadow of turning in Him,” James 1:17. We are also told, “Ask anything you will and it shall be done,” John 14:13.

There is a ‘catch,’ however. James 1:6 states it clearly, “ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Let not than man think he shall receive anything from the Lord.”

It seems that it is the Holy One’s delight to hear and answer our prayers but it does not please Him to do so if we are not convinced of His willingness and ability to do so. In that regard, He is rather like a loving parent who does not want to reward negative behavior in his child.

As much as parents delight in their offspring, as much as they wish to lavish them with every good thing it is in their power to give them, the father or mother who truly cares about the well-being of the child will not allow the child to perceive success through negative means.

Crying, foot stomping, shouting, cajoling of any sort cannot result in the youngster’s attainment of his wishes or he will be persuaded that such behavior is a viable means to an end. He may not cry and stomp his feet as an adult, but we are all familiar with grown-up manifestations of these infantile traits.

Because God desires mature faith from His people, because He wants them to be grounded in His truth and to apply it to all their circumstances He will indeed withhold reward from them when they endeavor to attain the answers to their prayers through any but the most profitable methods.

And in the estimation of the Holy One, what is ‘profitable’ is not necessarily what is expedient for us in our immediate circumstances. He cares little for how much wealth we possess or how successfully we influence other people or how long we enjoy this brief exercise we call ‘life,’ when in His sphere, life is eternal.

May we then endeavor to think as He thinks and to ask according to His will in all matters that we lay before Him in prayer. If we do, we will discover that all the promises, such as that of John 14:13 are absolutely true for us.