Love Compels His Answer

November 10

It is the desire of the heart of God to grant the hearts’ desires of His people. Sometimes that’s a difficult concept to accept. Sometimes we feel like the people who acknowledge that there is a true and living Creator who is ultimately in charge of the universe but, like them, we doubt He has any personal interest in us or our besetting trials.

We rationalize that He is too busy running the universe to waste His time with our complaints. Whether our struggles are with finances in a troubled economy or interpersonal relationships or health issues or the unraveling of stability in the world in which we must rear our children, we believe these matters are beneath His concern.

Were we to allow ourselves to appropriate in the depth of our being the reality that the Second Person of the Triune Majesty on High actually did walk the earth, actually did suffer and die, actually was resurrected, actually sits on the throne of Heaven—all because He loves us, perhaps the magnitude of His desire to bless us would be more easily within our grasp.

We would see the sincerity of the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ when He addressed the issue of unanswered prayer in John 16:24. He said, “Until now you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask, and you will receive so your joy will be full.” Asking in His name requires that we not only recognize who He is and what He can do, but that we ask with the assurance that His love compels Him to answer in the believers’ behalf.