Making Requests

When you want to know something, you ask someone who you feel sure can give you a good answer.  This is true of a problem at school, at work, when you see your doctor, or any other area.  Whenever you want to know something, you just ask.

In church, prayer is as common as you breathing.  Someone in church is going to pray, and more often than not, the pastor will say a prayer.  A Scottish Presbyterian pastor prayed long prayers in lofty language that only heaven could understand.  A woman in a chair near him tugged on his frocked tail and said, “Just call Him Father and ask Him for something.”  Ha!  Ha!  Now that is funny!  Although she has a very good point, you do not have to spend a lot of time trying to impress God with flowery language.  Yes, there are times for prayers of praise, adoration, thanksgiving and thanks, but all should be done from the heart, not to try to impress God.

The Lord Jesus spent a good amount of time addressing the issue of prayer to His disciples.  He seized several opportunities to instruct them on that very topic.  One such opportunity is recorded for Christians in Matthew 21:22, when then Jesus caused the fig tree to wither and the disciples were amazed, “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”  Notice, “all things you ask” means exactly what it says— “all things.”  Jesus wants you to pray about everything!  No matter how big or small the request, tell it to the Lord Jesus.  The result is that your prayer will be answered, because the verse says as you believe “you will receive.”  You may be saying you do not always receive everything you pray to receive.  That is true.  The Lord is commanding believers to pray and believe that their prayer will be answered.

Your job is to pray with a faith of believing the request will be accomplished; God’s job is to answer according to His will.  So, just ask Him for something.