the ask.

“If you ask the Father for anything in My name,

He will give it to you.

Until now you have asked for nothing in My name;

Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.”

John 16:23-24

“After God, it is YOU”, is a phrase that Matt and I commonly hear. 

Someone needs some money for school or for a doctor or needs food or books or sound systems or a visa, and to add to an already convincing argument, finishes the ask with “After God, it is YOU I am relying on!  You are my only hope…just after God!”

While this argument makes it incredibly hard to say ‘no’ to whatever the request, we were reminded a few months ago by a missionary friend that “after God” there is NONE.  While that may be how we are perceived, we are not to be the ‘only hope after God’ or ‘fully relied upon after God’, nor should we start thinking of ourselves that way!

Praise the Lord, there is none like Him or after Him, none needed in addition to Him or alongside of Him!  We've never been here because He needs us to be...just thankful to be used by Him nonetheless.

And here’s the kicker that’s got me thinking this week…It seems from this passage that God WANTS us to ask Him, telling His disciples that their joy can’t be made full until they have asked for things in His name.

Huh. 

Because we get so exhausted and even irritated at being asked, asked, asked all the time, I fall into the lie-mindset that I am bothering Him, or exhausting Him, or annoying Him, by asking for anything.

I try to save up my asking for something REALLY important, try to merit my ask before I make it, or feel the need to pair an apology with my ask.  “Sorry to be asking this, but…” 

But here Jesus is urging His friends to ask, to ask for anything!  Anything in His name, and it will be given, AND we will receive, AND our joy will be made full.

Why is that?  Why would He WANT us to ask Him for things when it gets so exhausting to have people asking US for things all the time?

Is it possible that asking is a sign of our faith?  If I ask Him for nothing, am I exhibiting any faith?  Is it possible that I’m not asking because I don’t really think He can do it?  Or because I don’t think I need Him to? 

Is it possible that refusing to ask God for things could be because of my pride?  Could it be that I have just so busied myself that I don’t even have time to think about what I really want to be asking Him? 

Does He LIKE giving good gifts to His children?  Yes…

            If you then, being evil, like to give good gifts to your children, how much more then will your Father who is in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him?  Matthew 7:11

Does He LIKE when we speak to Him? Yes… After asking us to pray SO many times in the Bible, He must enjoy His command.

           

Does He LIKE doing things that only He can?  Yes…Not just for the ones receiving or beholding the miracle, but He takes joy in changing, in creating, in doing, in working!

Matt and I get tired sometimes of being asked for things all the time because we AREN’T God.

We frequently CAN’T do anything about situations people are in, so being asked over and over to work miracles is painful.  We don’t have what it takes to be anyone’s “only hope”, so being treated as such is frustrating and overwhelming.  We aren’t second to God—because there IS none—so be addressed as such feels so impossible!  We are so limited by time, money and energy that being confronted as unlimited beings is overpowering.

But He! 

Perhaps part of why He loves our requests because it shows Him that for us, He is IT!  He is ONLY.  He is powerful.  He is able.  And we believe it.  Enough to ask Him. 

It’s one thing to believe that He can do it.  But are we asking Him to? 

He WANTS us to, and after dwelling more on this passage, I believe that even our asking can be given as a gift unto Him, our One and Only.

So, what are we asking today in His name?