Do You Have a “Blank Check” With God?

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?

Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

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!”

Luke 11:11-13

 

I think that those who limit the verses above to only asking for the Holy Spirit as it relates to the Father’s heart miss so much of what God has for them.

It is His heart to give us all that we ask for.

As we have seen this week, when we ask according to His will, He hears us and He answers our prayer.

Perhaps the clearest example of this is when we pray for a family member or a friend to know Christ.

Is that praying according to God’s will?

Of course it is!

We are told that God does not desire any to perish but for all to come to eternal life.

So, when I pray with that request I can pray confidently.

Now certainly the time and the method are in His hands and the decision ultimately is that person’s to make but I can come before God confidently and boldly with that request understanding that God desires to answer that prayer!

The same holds true for healing, for provision, for laborers for the harvest.

And the list is as big as His will…

Each of these requests are God’s heart and we need not fear that we are praying outside of His will.

When is it abused?

When we ask, based not on His will, but solely on our desires.

“But doesn’t it say He will give us the desires of our heart?”

That is not a blank check.

It requires that we abide in Him, remain in Him.

As we do, a wonderful thing happens.

Our desires begin to change.

They start to look remarkably like His.

We find ourselves, more and more, understanding, agreeing with and praying according to His will.

That is when the ‘blank check’ of John 15:7 (look it up) is placed in our hands.

 

Memory Verse Assignment

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that 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.

I John 5:14-15