Bible Explanations
89. Ask and ye shall receive
Matthew
7:7
- "Ask, and it
shall be
given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened
unto you."
Matthew 21:22 - "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in
prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
Luke 11:9 - "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given
you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto
you."
Promises such as these are
NOT carte
blanche to ask for what we like from God.
We often do not get what
we ask for:
James 1:5-7 - "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God,
that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and
it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.
For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the
wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive
any thing of the Lord."
James 4:3 - "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss,
that ye may consume it upon your lusts."
1 John 5:16 - "If any man see his brother sin a sin which
is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life
for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I
do not say that he shall pray for it."
These
promises are only given to the regenerate elect,
who will only want what the Lord wills
anyway:
Jeremiah 29:12,13 - "Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall
go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall
seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with
all your heart."
John 15:7 - "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you,
ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
John 15:16 - "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,
and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and
that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall
ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you."
John 16:24 - "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name:
ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."
1 John 3:22 - "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him,
because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are
pleasing in his sight."
1 John 5:14,15 - "And this is the confidence that we have
in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth
us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know
that we have the petitions that we desired of him."
Prayer is a conforming of our wills
to
God, not the other way around:
James 5:17,18 - "Elias was a man subject to like passions
as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and
it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six
months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the
earth brought forth her fruit."