Ask and it will be given to you. Do you trust in His promise?

Today's readings: Esther C: 12, 14-16, 23-25; Psalm 138: 1-3, 7-8; Matthew 7:7-12

The readings today are pretty challenging for me. 

Jesus said to his disciples: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asked for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asked for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.

The words of Jesus have been the same promise God has been making throughout Salvation History. Jesus encourages us to ask, seek, and knock. He is reminding us that God is on our side. He wants us to be successful.

Jesus is also reminding us to trust. And this is where it gets difficult for people. Once we ask, we HAVE to believe that it will be done. After all, 'if we know how to give good things to our children, how much more will your heavenly Father give you good things'. Why do we doubt that this is happening? I know in my life, I ask God for something and often times live in a way that doesn't show I believe He will give me the good things I need. It is in these moments that I worry so much about the future and what is going to happen, that I don't even pay attention to all the beauty, support and love around me.

Christ is trying to help us. He wants us to understand that He has our back. He wants us to believe not only in our ability to turn to him, but in His ability to know what and how to give us the things we need. We do not need to worry!

In the last 7 years I have really had to learn this reality, and often times I still fall flat on my face worrying too much. I am a work in progress. With all the physical issues I've had and still have it is hard to understand what it all means and how I will be able to live a fulfilled life. My life is not what I thought it would be growing up. I feel vulnerable and stretched every day.

We all have times in our lives that we are being stretched. And if we pray like Jesus taught us: 'Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done...give us this day our daily bread' then we will likely be stretched often because God wants us to be as happy, joyful, and free as possible but we have to get out of the way, we have to stop interrupting that success. 

A teacher of mine once told me that the best way to live out this promise of Christ's is to make sure we trust. Once we ask for something, we should act as if the request has been answered. DO NOT GO BACKWARDS, BUT ALWAYS MOVE FORWARD. We should not delay in believing it is done and living in a way that believes it. We should not be the same person after we ask, seek, knock...because God is changing us for the better. 

To go along with learning to trust that God answers our needs, we need to also remember an even more challenging reality: When we ask for something like patience, generosity, wisdom, etc. we need to remember that God will answer those prayers by giving us opportunities to grow in it. He will give us what we need to be successful, but we will have the opportunity to respond to that grace and grow in that quality. This is rough because usually we just want to be patient, but don't really want to have to use patience. We want to be joyful, but find it hard when faced with even more times in which joy is needed to get through a difficult situation. God knows that this will help us the most, as it is important to build good habits and that is done by doing the act.

No matter what it is that we are asking, we must believe and live with the trust that God answers us. Jesus promises to be with us and to give us all the good things we need. We need to take time each day making sure that we trust in the promise of God, that we believe He is here. And as we grow in our trust we will see how our worries and uncertainties diminish so that we can more fully live a life of holiness.What a great thing to work on today and every day!