I always wondered just what exactly this verse meant when God doesn't give us everything we ask for. So does anybody know the true meaning of it?
Matthew 7:7 " Keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be open for you."
The parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30 has a lot of application to this topic/question.
Uh-oh, my work just called. I thought I was to be off again but I have to go. Meantime, give this parable a perusal and we can talk more after I get home.
Blessings!
That was fun. Every little thing that could go wrong did go wrong, but on the plus side, I got a lot of hours in! Lol.
Ok, In hindsight I see that the Lord has been trying to teach me these things for a long time! I have, called Him on it and said Hey this is Edward knock knock lemmee in! (paraphrased lol)...and, He has not opened the door to the extent that I seek. I want to know Him, I want Him to know me. He promised, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened...And this is what was revealed to me about it. Yes, we are to seek Him. Yes we will find Him...but He is not an easy catch. He wants to know that we are serious about wanting a personal relationship with Him before He opens the door or lets us find Him.
He does this by not doing it, to see if we give up or persist. I'm not sure about other cultures, but in the US, I do know that most people give up way too easily and too soon. After I learned this...I began seeing testimonies and noticing how long the Lord made them wait before He opened the door for them, and these (from what I see) are good Brothers and Sisters that are more mature than I! 10 yrs, 12 yrs, 20 yrs, 28 years!!!...and then boom all of a sudden, Jesus or an Angel will show up and give you a visit or like I geard last night about one, SOmeone had been praying for gifts of the Spirit (don't remember which one, sorry!) and one night Jesus just apprared to this man and said to Him, you have been praying for 10 years for...XXXXXX (?) and tonight I gift you with this...(something to that effect) and anointed Him with his gift. 10 years praying for something!
So that verse you posted does not lie...but He didn't exactly say it would be fast or your first time asking for something either, right? Lol... So keep on asking!
Did you know that praying to the Lord for anything, even asking for help is worship? It is.
But the way I figure it, our example is in the parable of the Talents.
Absolutely everyone has been blessed by God in their life. (given a talent or two or five) and now, the owner (Jesus) is out of town on business. But He put us where we are now and everything good that has ever come to us was by Him. So the question we should ask ourselves is, (based on the Parable of the talents)...are we going to be profitable or unprofitable servants unto the Lord with what He has given us?
I hear He is returning soon! It was the unprofiable servant that said to the owner, I kept your goods safe but didn't make any profit. This is similar to how sometimes people say, well I don't evangelize or anything but I have the Lord in my heart. (non-active Christians). Unprofitable servants. Those guys get cast into outer darkness! That's scary!
We must put the hand to the plow, and produce fruit for the Lord! The Lord answers prayers faster for those He knows better and are active and working for Him as opposed to someone who may have got saved, but isn't active, might not even be reading His Word?
There's a lot of different levels in the Spirit of the Lord. First you get your feet wet, then it's ankle deep, then waist deep, finally you're swimming in the Lord. Those brothers and Sisters who are waist deep have more favor of the Lord upon them than others who may only have got their feet wet in Him.
Does that make sense to you?