How Asking God Shapes our Desire
Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
James 4:1, Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures
The source of both our greatest problems and greatest solutions resides within us. Our biggest obstacle is not with people, or even the devil, but with ourselves. Plato wrote, "The sole cause of wars and revolutions and battles is nothing other than the body and its desires." While desire is at the root of all the evils which ruin life and divide men, desire is also the most powerful motivation for choosing to live a victorious life.
James characterizes this conflict of competing desires as “wars” and “fights.” The solution to resolving this inner conflict is as simple as this: “Ask God.” The scripture says that "we have not, because we ask not."
Jesus said that we should "ask, seek and knock." These are levels of confidence in receiving from God. Asking builds confidence in our relationship with God. Seeking and finding confirms God as our source. Knocking represents a stable relationship where we know that access is always granted.
Asking God is the gateway to restoration, blessing and correction in the area of our desires. By asking, we reach to God for help. This has the effect of re-shaping and transforming our desires.
Implicit in asking is humility, and an acknowledgment of our inability to faithfully follow God without His grace. Asking puts us in a special place where God has complete access to us.
• Asking reveals our desires motivations
• Asking shows our priorities
• Asking shapes our future purpose
• Asking unveils our need
In 2008, let's make out aim to ask of God and trust Him to perform His will. When we ask, we allow Him to shape our desires and eliminate the conflicts that arise from selfish ambitions.
Click here to listen to my message from 1/16/2008 titled, "Asking God."
