For my Thanksgiving post this year, I will just say that I am truly thankful for difficult times. ("Difficult" is putting it nicely.) It's not that I have it, but I am getting it. And I wouldn't be getting it without those hard times. I'm sorry that's what it took, and we don't always go through hard times alone, but I am glad He gave me what I needed. What we learn about ourselves in such times is almost - almost - as important as what we learn about God. Actually, if we fail to learn anything more about ourselves, we are not likely to learn anything more about God.
I have come to believe that God always gives us what we ask for. You see, He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows that when we are asking for a "thing", what we are really asking for is a change in the way we feel or the way we perceive ourselves without that "thing". We're really asking for something to change us. Our desperation for a change in situation or circumstance is really our desperation for Him.
Our wants can be pure. They can also be a twist, or a perversion, of a real need. So, when we ask for "the thing" or "the change", we are really asking from a need sometimes so deep within us that we don't even recognize it. God has promised to meet our every need no matter how it is expressed. . . . even if it is expressed in some frivolous, unnecessary, selfish want. That's why we should bring our every care to Him.
In His grace and His mercy, God takes care even of what we really should be asking of Him:
"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God." Romans 8:26 - 27
So, yes, you get everything you ask God for. You just don't always know what you're asking!
If you would allow me to make a suggestion finally learned from my own experiences: Pray from your sincerity for God's will, including what we call God's best, for your life. Be willing to accept things that may not look like the best of anything, or that might not feel very good for a while, if that is what it takes. If it's hard to take the "you" out of your prayer, ask God to give you a clean, sincere heart for Him. You probably won't see change right away and the change, when it comes, might not look like you expected. But, when you "get it", you will know it. You will know that something has changed inside you and that change will soon begin to manifest itself in your life.
When you trust God to decode your prayer you will realize that you get everything you ask for. And when it comes to thankfulness, you might just find yourself thanking God for things you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.
Happy Thanksgiving!!
Connected,
Dennis
That's why we shouldn't hold back from asking.
