Ask!

Did you ever feel stuck? Like you think there is something more but it feels out of reach? My first question, and this is something I am wrestling with right now, is did you ask God? James 4:2 says You do not have because you do not ask God. Have you asked God for what you want? When you asked, did you ask believing? I mean maybe you’re feeling stuck in your art or your ministry. Maybe there is something you need to get to the level you believe you’re called to. Ask God. Maybe you need someone to help you with expertise you need. Ask God! Here’s the thing. If God has called you to it, He wants you to succeed according to His definition of success. Remember success is in His hands. What we control is our faithfulness, so ask God.

Is this asking a guarantee of success? As we define success, not necessarily. There is a car eat to this verse and it comes in the next verse. James 4:³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. If we want to succeed so we can appease our self-centeredness or our greed, God is under no obligation to oblige us. I know this first hand and I praise God that He left me fail to that end. I was determined to become rich and famous so I could “show them all.” God has no interest in that. God’s interest is that we find our identity in Him and that we use what He has given not for our temporary comfort in the here and now, but that we would invest His gifts in eternal things. Yes He cares about our lives in the here and now, and yes, He does provide fo us, and yes He even makes some folks quite wealthy and comfortable, but these things are according to His will. What He wants more than anything is that His beloved live this life for His purposes and that we would be with Him eternally, when this life is true.

Think about it. You were created by God on purpose, for a purpose, and when we live on that purpose, we find the meaning of life. So if you think there must be something more, ask! God is faithful.