Do you ever think that God is delighted to hear (and answer) your prayers? I am not talking about the prayers for extended influence, multi-million dollar lottery winnings, fast cars, or the typical laundry list of things we ask God to give us. I am talking about Christ exalting prayers that seek to bring us and the world around us into the likeness of Christ; the kind of prayers that seek to bring God's kingdom purposes to pass in and through us. Those prayers God delights to hear and answer.
Jesus stated, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks for bread will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will give him a serpent? If you, then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" (Matt. 7:7-11).
If fallen humanity knows how to respond tenderly to the requests of their children, how much more does God know how to respond. He is willing to give us what we need and beyond. His grace abounds in all of our lives. God is not selfish. He invites us to come to him with all of our cares and concerns and find what we need. He will not indulge our childish desires and so spoil us, but he will supply our every need. It must be stressed that he does all of this to his own delight. It pleases him. Thus, we should not feel that our prayers are a burden to God. It is a truth that should be etched into our hearts: we are invited to pray to the delight of the Father.
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