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Whatever I Ask?

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” – Psalm 37:4

What would you like to ask God for?

My daughter has a loft bed. The other day my son asked me if he could jump off that loft bed. He wasn’t asking if he could jump off into my arms. He had already done that. He wanted to jump all the way to the ground.

I told him, “No.”

I’m just that kind of mean father that I wouldn’t let my son jump off a platform that is nearly 6 ft high only to land on the hard floor. You may not think that was cruel, but he did. He got mad at me.

Whatever You Ask In My Name
There’s one concept in the Bible that trips a lot of Christians.

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” – John 14:13

The first time many Christians read this, they think they just rubbed Aladdin’s lamp.

“Seriously, I can ask for anything and as long as I say, ‘…in Jesus’ name’ I get it? Awesome!!”

Um…not quite. How good of a father would God be if He gave us whatever we asked, whether it was good or not? Not a very good father. Surely, God is a better father than I am and even I know that.

But I Want It!
Yet, we, like my son, don’t like that God may not say, “Yes.” We know what’s best, right? Not really. We are sinful and not all that wise. God, on the other hand, is completely sinless, holy, righteous, all-knowing, and the very definition of wisdom.

When the Bible says that if we ask anything, “in my name,” it doesn’t mean to tack “in Jesus’ name I pray,” to the end of the prayer. It means that if we ask what God wants to give, He will give it. This meaning is even more evident in our passage from Psalm 37, today.

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” – Psalm 37:4

If you want what God wants, He will give it to you.

On the one hand, you may say,

“Well, duh! If God already wants to give it to me, of course, He will give it to me.”

What we too often forget is that God is both completely wise and good. God won’t give us something harmful and God knows what’s best. Jesus said it this way,

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!” – Matthew 7:11

Allow me to translate.

“If Pastor Kurt, who is an evil sinner, knows how to give his kids good gifts, don’t you think your Father in Heaven who isn’t an evil sinner will give even better gifts?”

The point, therefore, of these passages are really the following:

  1. We should align our desires with God’s. We should seek to want what God wants because God is good and wise.
  2. God can ALWAYS give what He wants to give. I may want to give my kids the best, but I can’t always do so both because I don’t always know what that is and because my resources are limited. God always knows what’s best and He has unlimited resources and power to give whatever He wants.

So, in the end, these verses are more about submission and trust. We submit to God’s wisdom and goodness, and we trust that He can and will do what is best.

That’s one of the secrets of prayer.

Prayer is really more about submitting ourselves to God than about asking for what we want.

Heavenly Father,

You truly are a good father. I know You are wiser than I am and You are always good. Help me to trust in Your wisdom and goodness. As I ask for what I think is good, let me always have the humility and trust to follow my requests with, “…but Thy will be done.”

Amen.

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor Kurt