Month of Sundays: Asking

“Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done–on earth, as in Heaven.” (Matthew 6:10.)

My mother wasn’t in the best of moods that evening. As I prepared to leave her and my wife in the car and run in the grocery store, she gave me her orders:

“I want the greenest bananas in the place!”

That was easy: there were plenty of green bananas to choose from. The tricky part came after they got home. She wanted them to last on the counter for a while and they did…they never ripened! She eventually threw them out.

We come to God with a list. We’ve been told that, if we ask, we’ll receive. But we never ask the first question: “I wonder what God thinks of this…” We just make our demands and expect results.

But God is sovereign. He can say yes. He can say wait. He can say no. However, to really teach us a lesson, he can allow what we want to come to pass, and then we can suffer the consequences.

Our first task is to discover what God wants for us to do and be. That was Solomon’s secret: he first sought wisdom, and God rewarded him with great wealth and fame. Had Solomon reversed the order, he might have gotten…the green bananas. But he asked for God’s best first and was rewarded accordingly.

May we always first ask God for his best for our life, and then really listen for the response! He already knows what that is.

When praying, do not repeat the same words over and over again, as is done by the Gentiles, who think that by using many words they will obtain a hearing. Do not imitate them; for God, your Father, knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6: 7, 8 )