of verse 2 says, …
You do not have, because you do not ask
.
But then verse 3 says,
[Or] you do ask [God for them] and yet fail to receive, because you ask with wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives. Your intention is [when you get what you desire] to spend it in sensual pleasures.
So here are the reasons why we don’t get the things we want: First of all, we are trying to do it ourselves instead of asking God and the result is strife in our life. Secondly, we do ask God for it, but our motive is wrong. He can’t reward our wrong motives. There is a purification process that has to go on in our life.
I was trying to get all this “stuff” and make certain things happen, but I was leaving God out of the loop. All I needed to do was ask God for what I wanted, and if it was right for me, He would give it to me in His way and in His time. If it wasn’t right, and I was smart, then I had better hope He wouldn’t give it to me anyway. I finally found out, either God is going to get His way, or I’m going to be one miserable lady. I can save you years of agony, so listen to “Mama Joyce.” If you want to have a nice life, you had better pray on a regular basis: “God, help me to stay in Your will. I don’t want anything that You don’t want me to have. If it’s not You, God, slam the door in my face.”
I love what David prayed in Psalm 26:2,
Examine me, oh Lord, and prove me; test my heart and my mind.
What would happen if we started praying that way every day? “Test me, God, prove me. Look me over, God; examine me. And if there’s anything wicked in me, I want to know it.” We don’t need to be afraid to walk in the light of God’s truth. Light exposes every bug and every rat in the room, and when you turn the light on, they all start running for some corner to hide in. That’s exactly what happens when the light of God’s Word is shed on us. All the little bugs and rats like to start running away until the light goes out again.
James 1:2,3 tells us to be exceedingly joyful when we fall into all kinds of diverse temptations and tests, knowing the trying of our faith works patience. But, before trials brought patience out of me, a lot of other junk came out first such as fits of anger, jealously, resentment, and my bad temper. At first I thought the Word wasn’t working, but that’s how the Refiner’s fire works. When you apply heat, the impurities rise to the top first.
We don’t know what’s in us until we are tested. We don’t know what kind of faith we have until it’s tested. We don’t know what kind of endurance, steadfastness, or faithfulness we have until it’s been tried. We don’t know anything about being faithful to our spouse until that spouse is failing to do a few things we want them to do.
Most people try to run away from life when it gets hard. If God puts us around something hard, it’s for our benefit and our good so that we can build spiritual muscles by applying our faith in trusting Him. Many people leave a church if they don’t like it. If they don’t like a job, they leave. If they don’t like a neighbor, they move. If they don’t like a friend, if they don’t like their husband, they get another one. If they don’t like that one, they get another one and another one.
I thought every problem I had was Dave’s fault. I thought, If he’d quit doing this and that and something else, then I’d be happy. Or, If I didn’t have to work, I’d be happy. When I quit working and got bored, I thought, If I could work I’d be happy. If I could go out there and be with adults all day, instead of with all these kids, then I would be happy.
One day, Dave said, “Look, you wanted to quit working, and we let you quit working. It hurt us financially, but you quit working. Now you are not happy because you are not working. If you want to work, go back to work, but then you won’t be happy, You’ll want to quit working.”
He continued, “Joyce, I have done everything
You do not have, because you do not ask
.
But then verse 3 says,
[Or] you do ask [God for them] and yet fail to receive, because you ask with wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives. Your intention is [when you get what you desire] to spend it in sensual pleasures.
So here are the reasons why we don’t get the things we want: First of all, we are trying to do it ourselves instead of asking God and the result is strife in our life. Secondly, we do ask God for it, but our motive is wrong. He can’t reward our wrong motives. There is a purification process that has to go on in our life.
I was trying to get all this “stuff” and make certain things happen, but I was leaving God out of the loop. All I needed to do was ask God for what I wanted, and if it was right for me, He would give it to me in His way and in His time. If it wasn’t right, and I was smart, then I had better hope He wouldn’t give it to me anyway. I finally found out, either God is going to get His way, or I’m going to be one miserable lady. I can save you years of agony, so listen to “Mama Joyce.” If you want to have a nice life, you had better pray on a regular basis: “God, help me to stay in Your will. I don’t want anything that You don’t want me to have. If it’s not You, God, slam the door in my face.”
I love what David prayed in Psalm 26:2,
Examine me, oh Lord, and prove me; test my heart and my mind.
What would happen if we started praying that way every day? “Test me, God, prove me. Look me over, God; examine me. And if there’s anything wicked in me, I want to know it.” We don’t need to be afraid to walk in the light of God’s truth. Light exposes every bug and every rat in the room, and when you turn the light on, they all start running for some corner to hide in. That’s exactly what happens when the light of God’s Word is shed on us. All the little bugs and rats like to start running away until the light goes out again.
James 1:2,3 tells us to be exceedingly joyful when we fall into all kinds of diverse temptations and tests, knowing the trying of our faith works patience. But, before trials brought patience out of me, a lot of other junk came out first such as fits of anger, jealously, resentment, and my bad temper. At first I thought the Word wasn’t working, but that’s how the Refiner’s fire works. When you apply heat, the impurities rise to the top first.
We don’t know what’s in us until we are tested. We don’t know what kind of faith we have until it’s tested. We don’t know what kind of endurance, steadfastness, or faithfulness we have until it’s been tried. We don’t know anything about being faithful to our spouse until that spouse is failing to do a few things we want them to do.
Most people try to run away from life when it gets hard. If God puts us around something hard, it’s for our benefit and our good so that we can build spiritual muscles by applying our faith in trusting Him. Many people leave a church if they don’t like it. If they don’t like a job, they leave. If they don’t like a neighbor, they move. If they don’t like a friend, if they don’t like their husband, they get another one. If they don’t like that one, they get another one and another one.
I thought every problem I had was Dave’s fault. I thought, If he’d quit doing this and that and something else, then I’d be happy. Or, If I didn’t have to work, I’d be happy. When I quit working and got bored, I thought, If I could work I’d be happy. If I could go out there and be with adults all day, instead of with all these kids, then I would be happy.
One day, Dave said, “Look, you wanted to quit working, and we let you quit working. It hurt us financially, but you quit working. Now you are not happy because you are not working. If you want to work, go back to work, but then you won’t be happy, You’ll want to quit working.”
He continued, “Joyce, I have done everything
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