Then What's Next To Do?

"Everyone who asks receives..." (Luke 11:10)

Ask if you have not received.  There is nothing more difficult than asking.  We will have yearnings and desires for certain things, and even suffer as a result of their going unfulfilled, but not until we are at the limit of desperation will we ask.  It is the sense of not being spiritually real that causes us to ask.  Have you ever asked out of the depths of your total insufficiency and poverty?  "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God..." (James 1:5), but be sure that you do lack wisdom before you ask.  You cannot bring yourself to the point of spiritual reality anytime you choose.  The best thing to do, once you realize you are not spiritually real, is to ask God for Holy Spirit, basing your request on the promise of Jesus Christ (See Luke 11:13).  The Holy Spirit is the one who makes everything that Jesus did  for you real in life.

"Everyone who asks receives...."  This does not mean you will not get if you do not ask, but it means that until you come to the point of asking, you will not receive form God (see Matthew 5:45).  To be able to receive means that you have come into the relationship of a child of God, and then you comprehend and appreciate mentally, morally, and with spiritual understanding, that these things come from God.

"If any of you lacks wisdom...."  If you realize that you are lacking, it is because you have come in contact with spiritual reality - do not put the blinders of reason on again.  The word ask actually means "beg."  Some people are poor enough to be interested in their poverty, and some of us are poor enough spiritually to show our lust, not out of our poverty.  A pauper does not ask out of any reason other than the completely hopeless and painful condition of his poverty.  He is not ashamed to beg - blessed are the paupers in spirit (see Matthew 5:3)


~ Luke 11:10
"For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."

~ James 1:5
^"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you."

~ Luke 11:13
"If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

~ Matthew 5:45
"that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."

~ Matthew 5:3
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."


How true it is that the hardest thing to do is ask for help!  I have always hated asking for help, no matter what the circumstances are.  (unless it got to the point of putting my family in jeopardy of going without)  I guess you can call that a pride issue.  I have finally realized that asking for help is something that absolutely has to be done, whether it be something physically needed or spiritually.  I know in the four years Steve and I have been married, the first two were the absolute hardest.  We did have to ask for help, as much as I hated asking, there was no way we would have survived without it. 

The same goes for asking God for spiritual help.  You have to realize how poor you are to ask for help.  Unlike having to ask for help from other people, I WANT to be a pauper when asking God for his guidance wisdom.  I am not ashamed to admit that I will always need and want his help.  I want to receive his blessing and know they came from him.  Too many times, people take for granted what they are truly blessed by God with.  There have been so many times in my life where I have said "Thank you Jesus for...," but did I truly know that God blessed me, or was I just saying this out of relief that it happened?  (Or out of habit?) I by no means am saying that I wont ever take something for granted again, but I will say that my eyes are wide open, and I will know that God has blessed many for any given reason!  I will always ask for him, and pray to him! 

Thank you Lord for opening my eyes!! I am proud to be a pauper of God!  The way I see it, the more "poor" I am the "richer I will get spiritually!!