Straight Thinking 031068 Why Ask God?
Straight Thinking
031068
WHY ASK GOD?
Sunday. “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” Beside the dusty road that led from Jericho to Jerusalem, a blind beggar sat facing the voice that could command his eyes to see. But instead of a command a question came, “What do you want me to do for you?” What! Didn’t Jesus know? In fact, didn’t everybody that was there know? (Read Mark 10:47, 51.)
Monday. “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” So did Jesus, and so did everybody else on the Jericho road. Obviously, the blind man was begging for his sight. But why did Jesus ask Bartimaeus to ask when he already knew what he wanted? Why do we pray for what God knows we need? (Read Matthew 6:8.)
Tuesday. There is a difference between believing that God can give a blind man sight and believing that God will give a blind man sight if he asks, and God wants us to have that greater trust in him. But didn’t Bartimaeus already believe that Jesus would indeed give him sight if he asked? (Read Mark 10:48.)
Wednesday. There is a difference between a man’s faith that God will give him sight if he asks and the faith that asks. Jesus wanted to increase people’s faith by expecting them to ask. In fact, his miracles were more for increasing the recipient’s faith in him as God’s Son than for relieving the person’s suffering. There were lots of blind people in Jesus’ day and since that he hasn’t healed. (Read James 1:5-6.)
Thursday. “God sends rain on the just and unjust.” So, what’s the point of a righteous man’s prayer for rain? We gain an appreciation for the common good things in everybody’s life when we stop to thank him for them and ask him to keep giving them. Besides, in praying, we come face to face with our absolute dependence on God for everything and on his constant care for us all. (Read Matthew 5:45.)
Friday. But isn’t there more to the purpose of prayer than for developing proper attitudes toward God? Don’t we feel that by praying to the Father, he will grant benefits that would not have come had we not prayed? Yes. We remember Elijah, who even prayed that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t for three and a half years; and he prayed for rain, and it rained. (Read James 5:17-18.)
Saturday. “The effective prayer of righteous people accomplishes a lot.” It strengthens our faith in God, especially when God clearly answers yes; it impresses on us our dependence on him, and makes us appreciate the goodness of the One that provides for all our needs, asked for or not. (Read James 5:1.)
Virgil Warren, Straight, March 10, 1968, p13 christir.org