Matthew 7:; Ask, and it shall be given you..... Now this word ask is a word Jesus uses for prayer when hes talking about our prayer. He never uses this word when he talks about his own prayer life. The word means to beg, to implore, to beseech. When He talked about his own prayer life He said I will inquire of the Father. When He talks about our prayer, He talks about our beseeching, begging God. He could inquire the Father because when He came, He came on an equal level. But when we come, we come as really beggars, in a sense, because we have nothing really to offer God but ask and it shall be given you. James said, You ask and you receive not because you ask amiss that you might consume it upon your own desires(James 4:3). seek, [a little bit stronger] and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you (Mat 7:7): Now someone has pointed out that these Greek words ask, seek and knock are in the present perfect tense, which to be properly translated in English would be; keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking, not just a once complete action but a continuing action. So the continual prayer life asking, seeking, knocking. Now if we ask, it will be given; if we seek, we shall find; if we knock, it shall be opened. The Book of James: This chapter could be entitled how to win friends and influence people. Guard your tongue, bring your tongue under control, use it for good, use it to encourage to build up, dont use it to tear down, to destroy, to cut, to hurt. Your wisdom, let it be Godly wisdom let it be demonstrated in your manner of life, that is your life let it be pure. Let your life be peaceable, merciful. Now this fruit of righteousness that we desire is actually sown in peace and that fruit of righteousness will come. It is sown in peace of them that make peace. So seek to live in peace with each other, and that fruit of righteousness will come forth. But in contrast to the peace, James 4:1-2; Where does the wars come from the fightings among you, [the strife]? do they not come from your own lust that is warring in your members? You lust, and have not: you kill and desire to have, and cannot obtain: you fight and war, yet you have not.... Here James is declaring that most of the problems of man come basically from mans greed, and I would have to concur with this. I think it is the failure of our society. I think it is the failure of our government. Mans greed sooner or later gets in and corrupts. How corrupting is the greed of man, how it corrupts governments, the horrible thing of greed, and its behind the wars. It is behind the fighting. Its behind the striving. That desire to have what belongs to someone else. The fighting, the wars among us. And yet we have not because he said, because we ask not (Jam 4:2). You know a lot of these things that we desire, if we would just ask the Lord about them, and if it is right, God will give it to us. If it is not right he wont, because you can ask and receive not because you ask amiss, just to consume it on your own lusts. You see, people misunderstand the purpose of prayer. The purpose of prayer is never to get your will done upon the earth. And yet, how often we think of prayer as just that, the agency by which I can get my whims and wishes accomplished. Now Lord I want you to do this and I want you to do that and Ive got this list of things I want you to do before Friday. And we think of prayer as a marvelous agency by which I can get all my wishes and all my desires accomplished. I thought of prayer in that light for years. I was always trying to make deals with God. Now you do this and I will do this. How can you lose, trying to strike a bargain with the Lord? And I used prayer, or sought to use prayer, as a means by which I could fulfill my desires. I know a lot about this verse,
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 20:06:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015