A Study on Faith and Asking with Confidence

As a teenager I used to go to the mall on weekends.  I would wash up, get dressed in my favorite jeans, and the very last thing I would do is ask my parents for some money.

I asked for money (in faith) that they would give me what I was asking for.   I asked with the knowledge that I would receive.

What made me so sure that time after time the answer would be the same?  What if they decided that I didn’t need money to go to the mall, or that they had dished out enough already and I could go without this time?

I knew that they would never do that because of their love for me, their child, and this I was sure of; just as we can be sure of God’s love for us.  In Romans 8:38 it says “For I am convinced that neither earth, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   So now we know with confidence that God loves us, just as I was assured that my parents loved me enough to provide for my needs.

I also spent enough time with my parents, learning about them, so I knew how they would react to such a request. 

Shouldn’t we approach the throne of Grace with the same confidence that we apply to others?  Why then, don’t we just confidently state our request before our Father and relax in the knowledge that is shall be done for us?  Instead, we sheepishly approach God, make our request, then hold our breath and cross our fingers, in hopes that He will do it for us.  What kind of faith is this?  Can we even call it faith?

We ask with timidity because we don’t spend enough time with Him, in His word, getting to know Him and how He handles situations.  Doesn’t His word say in Matt 7:7 ”Ask and it shall be given to you”?   He said SHALL be given, not maybe you’ll receive if I feel like it.   “SHALL” is our assurance that if we ask (in accordance with His will) then He will hear our petitions and honor our request.    

Does that mean if you ask for the winning lottery numbers, you will receive them?  NO!  How do I know?  The Bible says in 1Timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil”. That’s pretty clear.  We can safely assume that He’s not going whisper the winning numbers in our ears as we sleep because He knows that we will eventually end up relying on our money to provide for us and not our Creator.  The second half of 1 Timothy 6:10 reads like this “…and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs”.   We know that He seeks a relationship with us, so He would never allow something that would only turn us away from Him.

Knowing God’s will for us is not difficult.  It takes a bit of determination and commitment on our part though, just as learning to ride a bike takes determination and a commitment to stick with it.  God hides nothing from us that can help us.  It’s all in His word, but we must choose to read His word if we want to know Him, so that we can approach Him, not with a spirit of timidity but boldness, in the knowledge that what we are asking for is indeed His will and it SHALL be done for us, just as He says.

We are all given choices to make.  Every day we are faced with millions of choices, whether we realize it or not.  We choose if we are going to get out of bed in the morning.  We choose what we are going to wear and eat, and drink.  We choose what activities we are going to do, and we even choose how we react to certain situations.  We may choose so fast that is seems like the choice was not ours to make, but I promise you, we chose it!

So with all those choices, why do we not choose to spend time with our creator, the Living God?  After all, He made some choices on our behalf.  He chose to bring us to life.  He chose our parents and our circumstances that brought us to Him.  Why not consider choosing God when we have a moment of free time?  Instead of watching t.v. or going on the internet, or reading that novel that we’ve been wanting to finish, why not read God’s word and get to know Him and how He operates in our lives?  That way, when we ask of Him we can approach Him with bold confidence that we are asking in accordance with His will, and we shall indeed receive.

Therefore, let us approach our Father with confidence and thank Him for hearing our petitions and sending His answer Henceforth, just as Jesus did when calling Lazarus out of the grave, when he said in John 11:41 “…Father, I thank You that You have heard Me”.  Jesus had the full assurance that His Father in Heaven heard His petition, and it was going to be done for Him.

Matthew  7:7-8 (ASV)

“Ask, and it will be give to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened”.

* Note that He says everyone who asks, receives, not just some of us.  He’s not talking here about the “goodie goodies” who are the teacher’s pet.  His word is truth for EVERYONE and that means you and me!

Mark 11:24

“Therefore, I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you”.

Hebrews 4:16  "Let us then approach the Throne of Grace with confidence to receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need". (NIV)