21 Day Prayer Experiement – Day 3
Yesterday, we established that God’s children, those who believe in Jesus, can go to Him with confidence and ask for anything according to His will. Before I talk about what to ask for, I want to talk about how we determine what to ask for. This may sound like splitting hairs, but I think it’s important if we want God’s best and highest desire.
As I was reading 2 Chronicles 1 recently, I came upon this very scenario that we addressed yesterday, What if you could ask God for whatever you want? God appears to Solomon and says to him, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you” (2 Chronicles 1:7). What if God literally appeared to me and asked me the same question? What would I ask Him for? I found myself hesitating because I had never specifically and intentionally thought through this. Don’t get me wrong, I have some big dreams, I have a life-goal list, I have things the Lord has put in my heart that I hold on to, but some of them I have never really verbalized to God! You have probably been asked this question as well at some point in your life, “If you could do anything, and money were not an option, what would it be?” Questions like these speak to dreams. They force us to think in specific terms and examine our motivations. If God really appeared to me, would I ask Him for something worthy of His appearing or would I ask amiss?
Of course the New Testament echoes this very same idea in many places. Two of those passages is found in in the book of John.
John 14:13 NIV And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.
John 15:7 NIV If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
John 14 paints the picture and John 15 qualifies the statement. The idea is that when we have the Father’s heart as our own, when our motivations line up with His, when His will and desires trump our own and even become our own, we can ask for whatever we wish and it will be given to us. This paints a slightly different picture than what we see in 2 Chronicles with Solomon. In that passage, one gets the idea that God would have fulfilled something slightly lesser if Solomon had asked for it. This points to the fact that God will answer any of our prayers that fall within His will and desire. God was excited and happy that Solomon asked for wisdom rather than riches, and because he asked for God’s higher or highest desire, God gave Solomon both, but had Solomon asked for riches and honor, God would have given it to Him because it’s His will to bless Solomon. Like Solomon, I want to ask for God’s highest will or greatest desires.
That’s why God was so pleased when Solomon asked for wisdom rather than riches and decided to bless him with both. When you ask God for His highest will or His greatest desire, all the sub-blessings go along with it.
This brings me to my conclusion: seek God and you will find His highest will and His greatest desire. As children that want to please our Father, that’s what we should all want.
So today, take some time to find out His highest will and greatest desires!
Tomorrow we will talk more about how to ask God and get answers.
Prayer Resources
- Listen to Kent’s first message in the prayer series from Journey Church here;
- Sign up to receive Kent’s daily prayer posts here;
- Order The Circle Maker book by Mark Batterson;
- Sign up to receive Mark Batterson’s daily prayer posts here.
- Follow Kent on twitter to receive tweets on prayer.
