Precepts and promises are both very plain, and yet, like every word of the Lord, they contain much that we have never yet learned. The promises alone will be enough for our present study.
The promise is, "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." (Matthew 7:7)
Yet many say, "I have asked, again and again, and nothing has been given me; if this promise is true, why do I not receive?"
You have answered your own question, When you say, "If this promise is true," or, "If this means what it says," you show that you do not believe. And how can you call upon Him in whom you have not believed? He who does not ask in faith, does not really ask at all. You would not go to a haberdasher's and ask for diamonds. Why not? Because you do not believe that diamonds are to be found there. Even if you should say the words, "Please show me some diamonds," anybody would know that you were but joking, and did not mean what you said, so that you do not really ask for them.
Even so it is with many so-called prayers to the Lord. People say over certain words, often without any thought of what they mean; and if they do give a thought to the meaning, they do not really expect actually to get the thing that they ask for: and then they complain that God does not answer prayer. Yes, He does; but they have never prayed. They have not asked for anything.
It, is useless to try to deceive God, God can hear sounds that are muffled to the ear of mortals. He hears the thought of the heart. Empty words, not prompted by the heart, are but inarticulate sounds; it is what the heart desires, that the Lord hears. Wherever there is a sincere desire for any good thing, be assured that God understands it, and gratifies it, even though not a word be uttered. "The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing." (Psalm 34:10) "Any good thing." Ah, there is the secret of many a failure in prayer. God is good, and deals only in good things. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights." (James 1:17)
He has never promised anything but good; but we have not always desired the good. We desired to feel well, to be free from smitings of conscience, while continuing to do that which is not good. So we did not really ask for the things which God keeps in stock. He supplies every good thing, and we ought to be glad that He does not offer anything else. "This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us; And if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." (1 John 5:14-15)
And how comprehensive is His will! He wills that we should be saved, and that we should have everything that pertains to life. If we know that God hears us when we pray, we know that we have the things that we asked for. And we know that He hears us when we ask according to His will, that is, ask from the heart for the good things that He has to bestow.
Than do we not have to wait a long time for the answer to our prayers? Certainly not. What is the promise of the Lord? "Everyone that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened." (Matthew 7:8)
Do you take notice that the receiving is in the same tense as the asking? He that asks--a present act--receives also a present act. The receiving is coincident with the asking. As soon as we ask, we receive. That is the promise of Him who cannot lie.
But here comes an honest man, who says he has asked for things that he did not immediately receive. He was sincere in the asking, too. What shall we say in such a case? We shall say, "Let God be true, but every man a liar." (Romans 3:4)
Yet we do not need to accuse this man of lying in this matter. We may, however, ask him a question. Was the thing for which you asked something that you needed immediately? "Oh, no; I did not need it at the time; but I thought I should like to have it beforehand, so that there would be no doubt about getting it in time."
Ah, yes; quite so; you did not feel certain about the promise of God, to give you grace in every time of need, and so you thought that you would experiment a little. And you called that faith!
Now begin over again, and begin right. Be content with what you need for today, and do not try to pile up blessings ahead. Ask for such things as you have need of. Do not go to trying experiments with the Lord. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (Matthew 6:34)
And therefore the good with which to meet the evil can well wait until the day comes.
God is better than man. Some may think that this is an unnecessary statement; but the fact is that many people do not believe it. There are many people who call themselves Christians, who think that they are a great deal better than the Lord is; for they would deem it an insult to be thought capable of acting as they expect God to act. They would interrupt a man if he began to make an apology to them, and would say, "Never mind that; say no more about it; it is all right, the same as though the thing had never happened."
Yet they do not believe that God forgives their sins, which they have confessed again and again. But God says that the case is reversed.
A parent studies how to find out some new thing with which to please his children; he delights in the gratification that it gives them. He loves to see their faces light up, as they undo the new treasure which their father's love has devised for them.
Very good; but God is our Father, and His love for us is as much greater than the love of any earthly father for his child, as God is greater than any man. Take the delight which a father feels in giving good things to his children, and multiply that by the number which expresses the difference between God and the man, and you have the readiness with which God gives the best things to His children. It is infinity. "Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." (Matthew 7:12)
There are many men of the world, men who call themselves infidels, who nevertheless have no fault to find with this rule, which is called "the golden rule." They decry all talk about God; they do not believe in faith, and in answers to prayer; but they say that they believe in the religion of the golden rule. That is good enough for them.
It ought to be good enough for them; for it is the sum of the entire Bible. It is the law and the prophets. No one can keep the golden rule, who does not keep all the commandments of God, and who does not believe all that the prophets have written.
Moreover let it be remembered that the golden rule hinges on faith in God's readiness to answer prayer. God is infinitely more willing to give us good things than we are to provide for our children, therefore we should do unto others as we would have them do to us.
All we have to give is what the Lord has already given to us, but He gives abundantly, therefore we ought to be willing to give freely. We cannot do anything good to any person except as God acts in us. But God is near, for all things that we call upon Him for: "For what nation is there so great, who has God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon Him for?" (Deuteronomy 4:7)
And our reaching out to do good to others is the only evidence that we appreciate good things, and wish God to deal them to us.
This brings us to the thought with which we may well close, that real prayer is receiving. He who does not receive, does not pray. That is just what the text teaches: "Everyone that asks receives." (Matthew 7:8)
Praying is not begging, it is not trying to move God to do something, to which it is possible He may be disinclined; least of all is it an attempt to have God act contrary to His law, or to nature.
No; it is simply the coming to God, with hearts open, saying in our inmost being that we are now ready to take the things which He has so long held out to us. It is the saying to God that we are willing that He should act in us according to His unchangeable law, according to unperverted nature.
Giving is the law of God's life; therefore everyone who is willing to receive of God, must of necessity have the good things desired. "[He] gives us richly all things to enjoy." (1 Timothy 6:17)
Let us enjoy them.--Present Truth, March 29, 1900--Matthew 7:7-12.