John 16:23-24 (NIV) Jesus says to his disciples. 23 “… Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”
Here’s a principal regarding prayer that I think we do well to remember: when it appears that God has said “no” to a specific, time-sensitive request, it is only because He has incorporated that request into what is going to be a far more comprehensive and satisfying answer.
Consider a grade school boy who’s been asking to go to the State Fair in Minot. He’s been dreaming about it and talking steady about all those carnival rides. He even marked the date on the family calendar in the kitchen. He finds pictures of various carnival rides and leaves them lying around — some on his Dad’s desk, on the kitchen table, in the pickup. But all his dad keeps saying is, “well, get your clothes ready and pack your bag.”
And yet the week of the fair comes and goes without a word from his dad about it. The boys sits in his room stunned and heartbroken, staring at his packed bag.
Request denied.
Isn’t that how we can come to view prayer? We’re commanded to pray so we ask. Nothing happens. We ask again, and perhaps even again — nothing. Dismayed or heartbroken or even embittered we shrug our shoulders and try to move on.
Request denied.
What the boy in my story doesn’t know is that the first time he asked, his dad started setting aside the time and money for a trip to Disney World.
Do you get the picture? The boys request, far from being ignored, was incorporated into what was going to be granted as a far more comprehensive and satisfying answer.
