DEVOTION / Did you ever think of asking?
I can’t do this on my own!
One snowy winter day a young boy decided to dig a cave in a huge pile of snow. Without knowing it, the boy’s father stood a few feet away watching him struggle and strain as he tried to remove shovel after shovel of snow. Soon the boy realized that the task was more than he bargained for, and it was time to give up. Then his dad walked over to him and asked, “Son, how come you’re not using all your strength to move that snow?”
The boy looked at his dad and sighed, “Dad, I was using all my strength. It’s just more than I can do.”
The father looked at his little boy and quietly said, “No, son. You haven’t done all you can do. You haven’t asked me yet!”
You haven’t asked me yet! That’s what God often tells us. Many times in the Bible, God tells us to bring our cares to him. He tells us to come to him with all our requests. But how can we do that?
What do you want me to do for you?
One day as Jesus and his disciples were entering Jericho, they saw a blind man sitting by the roadside begging for money. When the man heard that Jesus was passing by, he shouted, Jesus, please help me. Most of the people in the crowd told the man not to bother Jesus. But the man called out even louder, Son of David, help me. Finally the disciples let the man go to Jesus.
Jesus knew this man needed help. Yet he asked him an unusual question: What do you want me to do for you? (Mark 10:51). Even though Jesus knew that the man was blind, he wanted the man to come to him and ask him for healing in his own way. Jesus wanted the man to ask for sight, just like the father with his little boy. The blind man told Jesus that he wanted to see, and Jesus healed him.
Jesus tells us many times in his Word that he wants us to come to him. He tells us to: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7). John said it this way in 1 John 5:14,15: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
God will always answer our requests. Although his answer may not always be the one we want, we trust that God knows what is best for us.
What great love God has for us in promising to always hear us and help us. Thank God for always being there for you. Tell him about what’s happening in your life and share with him your thoughts and problems. That’s exactly what he wants us to do.
By Reynold R. Kremer