Jesus said though if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children HOW MUCH MORE does God who is Supreme Love wants to help you too and even more.
I agree and I'm being mindful of that.
Still...
I've several things I've wrestled with over the years regarding God answering prayers.
I won't get into them over a public forum, but let's just say that they were very important to me for a long time, and I've since basically given up on the idea that these two things will ever be granted to me.
But I can in all honesty say this:
As near as I can figure, if I absolutely
need something, He
will give it to me...
Knowing that I need it even before I ask ( Matthew 6:8 ).
If I have a
desire for something that I don't absolutely need, then I run the risk of it being "asked amiss", that I might consume it upon my own lusts...
regardless of what the Lord Jesus told His disciples in John 16:23-24 about asking Him for something, so that their joy would be full.
Therefore, I cannot ever be
absolutely sure that I will have a favorable outcome from my requests to Him unless I
genuinely need it, versus wanting it.
God is not my Heavenly vending machine, and He is not my servant or my bell hop.
If I spot something in His word or in this life that He has blessed others with, there's really no guarantee,
despite how much I want it or how important it is to me to have it, that He will
ever grant it to me.
In other words,
He has to be
willing to give it to me before I can be sure that I will get it.
In the scenario of my will versus His will, He wins;
He is God, and I am His ( mostly ) disobedient child who has no ability to do anything other than to beg a favor and hope that He gives it to me, should it be
His will.
At the end of the day, I have to meet ( or evidence ) the qualifications laid out in His word to be granted anything by request:
1) I have to be His child, declared righteous by His grace and through the blood of His Son. He does not hear unrepentant sinners when they pray ( John 9:31 ), He only hears the righteous ( Proverbs 15:29, Psalms 145:18-19, Proverbs 15:8 ).
2) I have to ask Him,
believing that I will get it ( Mark 11:24, Matthew 21:22 ).
3) I cannot be double-minded in my requests ( James 1:5-8 ).
4) I have to abide in Him and His words abide in me ( John 15:7 ), related to item 1.
5) I have to keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight ( 1 John 3:22 ).
If I cannot meet these ( or be found in these ) as laid out, then my requests go unanswered.
To me, it's as simple as that.
