Asking and Receiving

As it says in the Bible, Matthew7:7-11, we should ask of God that we may receive from His hand. It seems so simple in its statement, and it is. We should ask God for all things. To pray daily to Him and ask that He provides us with our daily bread, our needed shelter, to do His will. Without Him we accomplish nothing and with Him we accomplish much. Though it may seem at times we toil and achieve alone it is in fact not that way. God is always with us, working His will among us. The thing that slows our success is by not turning to Him and recognizing His work in our daily lives. He is already there, helping us, why are we not turning to Him and asking specifically for the help He is already giving? Does not a crew build a house faster when they discuss what each one is doing instead of all of them just doing the part they think is next? Can you put a roof on a house without first constructing the walls? No! So why do we try to do the next thing without first communicating to the one helping us build? That sounds so simple, but for me, I struggle with something else, a fear, and I should fight the fear because it isn't meant to deter me from asking but to help me understand the desires of my heart.

The fear stems from James4:3. This passage says that I do not receive because I have asked wrongly. I fear being wrong. Which is funny, because I have been wrong enough to know it isn't the end of the world to be wrong. What I fight is my pride. I do not wish to ask wrongly, so I avoid asking for fear that my heart desires worldly things. I already know my heart has a tendancy to desire worldly things, so now I'm just making matters worse by never asking. God doesn't always give you what you desire or give in the way you desire it, but He gives you what is good. If I desire to gain a bit more financially and I ask I hardly ever receive that, but what does happen is God gives me what I need when I need it. So what I have learned is when I do receive something extra in our finances it is probably needed for something else that is about to come up. This in turn has been teaching me to care for the things that God has provided me. I don't do this perfectly, but I try my best and with God's help it is usually good enough to not mess up other things. So moving forward, my goal is to ask God for all things, because the worst that can happen is I don't get what I asked for, but receive something better that God has in mind for me.