Back to Asking
God asks us to ask
Prayer Series: Part 8
We’ve talked about other ways to pray and listen to God, and now we circle back to asking. Asking is often the starting point with prayer: give us this day. When Jesus heals people, he often says: What do you want me to do for you? He asks us to ask.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:7a, “Ask and it will be given to you.” Jesus says to ask, seek and knock. These words in Matthew are written to convey continual asking. Pete Greig’s take on this says it would be better translated: keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. He says, “There is a sense of habit, of repetition, of a reward for prayerful perseverance,” (Greig, How to Pray, Pg 88).
Much like how my children pester me for the things they want, we are to ‘pester’ God, asking for what we want and need. In Luke 18, we read about the persistent widow, who begs and pleads for the judge to grant her justice. The judge says, “Yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me.” (Luke 18:5, NIV)
The phrase- ‘come and attack’- can be translated with the word weary. It means to ‘beat black and blue’ or ‘give one intolerable annoyance.’ The judge gives justice to avoid this treatment: if he doesn’t give her justice, she is going to come and beat him black and blue or annoy him intolerably. That’s how intense and dead-set on justice this woman had become.
The word for “bothering” can be translated as ‘reach forth’ or ‘offer,’ She keeps coming. And she won’t stop. That’s how we are supposed to pray. While I’m trying to teach my kids not to pester me, I’m also trying to teach them they should pester God. He invites us to keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. And furthermore, while the judge does represent God in the story, he is not an accurate picture of God. God is not annoyed with our asking. On the contrary, he welcomes us and actually wants to give us good things.
While prayer isn’t only asking, asking is foundational to our relationship with God. He wants us to participate in the renewing and restoring of the world by asking him for things. These things we ask for should be about bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to earth, whether big or small. They can be a need or a want. There’s no prosperity language here - I don’t believe in asking God for a million dollars everyday, unless there’s some way it will bring heaven to earth for the sake of the world and not just for the sake of me. But we can ask for big things like a job or healing from cancer, alongside small things like parking spots and better weather.
My son went fishing for his 9th birthday this year and beforehand, I privately prayed he would catch a really big fish right away. I simply asked God to bless my son with joy on his birthday. Ten minutes into their excursion, I received a photo of him holding up a big fish.
I have two dear friends who had difficulty getting pregnant. I prayed and fasted for them regularly for years. Both of them now have little ones at home. No one is going to argue that catching a fish is in the same category as conceiving a child, but for some reason, God wants us to ask for both. The Kingdom of Heaven is both birthing new life in a sweet baby, and enjoying his beautiful creation with a fishing pole. Both mirror our good Creator.
When we ask, we are asking that Heaven comes to earth. We get to look around and see where Heaven is not reality and ask God to intervene: bring it now! And spoiler alert: Heaven is filled with joy. So this must include asking for joyful things.
This is what Jesus did. He took the reality of Heaven and made it reality on earth. He did this with physical and spiritual healing, feeding people lunch, and making some of the best wine anyone had ever tasted to celebrate a wedding. We are to engage in asking for this Kingdom, his Kingdom, in prayer.
This is one of the easiest ways to pray without ceasing. Throughout the day, we acknowledge God’s presence and ask him to intervene where things are not as they should be. In asking, we join what God is already doing. He is already working for the full redemption of humanity. Greig continues, “praying in the name of Jesus means wanting what God wants, aligning our wills with his will, our words with his Word, and our personal preferences with his eternal and universal purposes,” (Greig, How to Pray, Pg 85).
So, I ask for his kingdom to come here, whether it’s a fish or a baby. When Jesus walked in Israel, making his way throughout the cities, I wonder how many people wanted to ask him for healing, but didn’t. We get but a glimpse in the gospels of people crying out to him. But I also believe there were so many others who simply watched him pass by, stifling the cries of their hearts. Their needs and wants remained unspoken and unasked. As a result, they missed the Kingdom of God that was at hand.
How much am I missing out on God’s kingdom because I am not asking? I don’t want to leave things unspoken or unasked. I want to be the one who cries out, “don’t pass me by.”