When I was growing up in Texas as child, I remember there were some times where finances were short and our family was in need. My parents didn’t let anyone know, but they did bring their needs to God in prayer. They trusted God’s promise to supply all of their needs according to His riches in glory. On more than one occasion, we came out of the church after a Sunday service to find the back seat of our car filled with grocery bags. As children, my siblings and I were amazed at what God had done. All we had done was bring our needs to God in prayer. He answered our prayer by speaking to someone’s heart and they responded by being a blessing. It felt like Christmas day as we unloaded the bags filled to groceries.
God’s answer to our prayers made an impact on my life. God does hear our prayer. He does answer. He does meet our needs.
Recently, I was praying about a personal need and I felt the Spirit of God convict my heart. He was challenging me about my lack of prayer in this area of my life. I sensed God was saying that I had just accepted the problem. I hadn’t been asking God in a fervent way to change the situation or to meet the need.
As I prayed I wondered if my lack of prayer in this area had resulted in missed blessings.
James 4:2 says, “You have not, because you asked not.”
I have talked about prayer several times on this podcast and have reinforced the idea of praying in accordance with God’s will. Of course, James 4:2 does not mean that if we ask God for anything we desire we will get it. Often our motives are selfish and we pray for things outside of God’s will, and he will not answer.
But what about those times when God desires to meet a need and to respond to the cry of our heart but we failed to ask him?
So often we leave God out of the equation. After all, we are resourceful people. We are competent. We are problem solvers. Surely, we can find and answer, a solution, or a remedy to our problem.
I’m convinced our self-reliance is the cause of many missed blessings. We miss out on a miracle. We miss out on seeing God’s power revealed because we failed to pray and ask God to meet our needs.
As you think about your life, not doubt you are like me. You have needs. There are things you need God to do.
If you need an answer he has it. If you need healing. He is a healer. If you need provision, I’ve seen what he can do. If you need deliverance, he can set the captives free. He has strength for the weary, hope for the hopeless, and wisdom for the confused.
What a privilege it is for you and I to have access to God and to be able to bring our needs to him in prayer.
Are you missing out on some of God’s blessings simply because you have not asked him to meet your need?
1 John 5:14-15 - “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
There are several reasons we can miss out on God’s blessings. We can neglect to pray. We can refuse to pray and work to solve the problem ourselves. We can fail to pray because we have lost our confidence in God. We can ignore prayer because we have become pre-occupied with life.
Whatever you are facing today, let’s believe what God’s Word says. We can have confidence when we pray that God hears us. He is a good Father who wants to bless his children.
Today’s Challenge: Make a list of what you need God to do in your life. Commit to prayer. Seek his will. Make sure your desires and your request line up with God’s will. Ask God to intervene in your situation and believe that he hears and will answer. Don’t miss out on your blessing because you have neglected to pray.
