9 September 2019
Just Ask Lillie
Matthew 7:7-8 NLT
Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
On Saturday at Women’s Breakfast at our church, my friend Lillie shared a personal experience from a time when she prayed fervently for something. Her husband’s family are Jehovah Witnesses, and she decided that she was going to pray for her mother-in-law’s salvation, but quickly learned that this woman was just a deeply rooted in her faith as Lillie is in hers. After several years of praying and eventually living under the same roof, so the mother could receive the care she came to require, Lillie finally got the opportunity to pray with her husband’s mother a few months before she passed away.
This is why I love this passage from Matthew 7. Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. YOU WILL RECEIVE... It never seems like it, does it? We pray out of desperation and obedience, but do we pray out of genuine assurance and HOPE? We should. We should keep praying about whatever that impossible thing is, and pray with great hope and expectation, because no matter how long it takes (God doesn’t seem as concerned with time as we are), God is working. In fact, he never stops working (see Psalm 121), and he doesn’t have to run his plans by us either.
Am I really ready for God to answer my desperate and sincere prayers? Lillie did NOT pray for her mother-in-law to move in with them, but that is what the answered prayer in her case looked like. We shouldn’t resist and fear changes that come; it might be what an answer to prayer really looks like.
But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. (James 1:6 NLT) And it doesn’t matter if an answered prayer takes 5 minutes, 5 days, 5 years or 15 years. Never stop believing that God will do the seemingly impossible. He always does; just ask Lillie!!!
Dear God,
Thank you for remembering every single one of my prayers. I know you have. Thank you for how you sustain me during the waiting and how you surprise me at your unveiling. I appreciate so much for the journey that prayer is. I have never been disappointed or ashamed for bringing something to you in prayer. Thank you so much for the mechanism of faith that is prayer, and that you use it effectively and faithfully in my life. I love your faithfully answered prayers, and I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Just Ask Lillie
Matthew 7:7-8 NLT
Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
On Saturday at Women’s Breakfast at our church, my friend Lillie shared a personal experience from a time when she prayed fervently for something. Her husband’s family are Jehovah Witnesses, and she decided that she was going to pray for her mother-in-law’s salvation, but quickly learned that this woman was just a deeply rooted in her faith as Lillie is in hers. After several years of praying and eventually living under the same roof, so the mother could receive the care she came to require, Lillie finally got the opportunity to pray with her husband’s mother a few months before she passed away.
This is why I love this passage from Matthew 7. Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. YOU WILL RECEIVE... It never seems like it, does it? We pray out of desperation and obedience, but do we pray out of genuine assurance and HOPE? We should. We should keep praying about whatever that impossible thing is, and pray with great hope and expectation, because no matter how long it takes (God doesn’t seem as concerned with time as we are), God is working. In fact, he never stops working (see Psalm 121), and he doesn’t have to run his plans by us either.
Am I really ready for God to answer my desperate and sincere prayers? Lillie did NOT pray for her mother-in-law to move in with them, but that is what the answered prayer in her case looked like. We shouldn’t resist and fear changes that come; it might be what an answer to prayer really looks like.
But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. (James 1:6 NLT) And it doesn’t matter if an answered prayer takes 5 minutes, 5 days, 5 years or 15 years. Never stop believing that God will do the seemingly impossible. He always does; just ask Lillie!!!
Dear God,
Thank you for remembering every single one of my prayers. I know you have. Thank you for how you sustain me during the waiting and how you surprise me at your unveiling. I appreciate so much for the journey that prayer is. I have never been disappointed or ashamed for bringing something to you in prayer. Thank you so much for the mechanism of faith that is prayer, and that you use it effectively and faithfully in my life. I love your faithfully answered prayers, and I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
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