Ask

The memory is vivid in my mind. One so horrific it has left emotional scars to this day. We were at the park enjoying a picnic. My mother was trying to created a family memory. I was no more than nine or ten and my brother a year younger. What would happen later is not what she had in mind.

For some reason she struck out on her own as a single mother and moved my brother and I to Houston. She met a construction worker; a very savory character. I guess they dated for awhile. The next thing I knew we moved to a new apartment and I was told I had a new "father." I do not even remember a wedding ceremony. I had a step father nonetheless.

On that picnic I asked my stepfather for a drink of water. He took a cup filled it with water and then without explanation or warning he threw the cup of water in my face. I never asked him for anything ever again and I rejoiced when my mother ended that relationship with that terrible man.

To this day I don't like asking for help. I am continually put in situations where I need help. I have never been mechanically minded. I am more at home in a library than a lumber yard. So there are times when projects arise that are beyond my ability and I have to ask for help.

Truth be told life requires that I ask for help. Ask God. There are times when I ask and ask and ask God for help. There are other times when I give up the asking and accept things the way they are. In such times I am reluctant to ask God for help.

Any person who has ever asked God for anything knows what it is like to not receive what you asked for. There are reasons God does not answer. Maybe the time is not right. Maybe God denies our request is because He has something else, something better, in mind. Maybe the answer is no because He knows what is best and He knows the outcome of everything. He tells us to ask Him.


Matthew 7:7-8 (NASB)
⁷  "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
⁸  "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  

We ask, ask, and ask. When it pleases God He gives and we receive. It will be in His perfect timing. We ask but we must learn to ask patiently and perisistenlty waiting on the answer. We ask and must learn to submit to His authority when He denies what we ask. We ask and ask. It is a glorious day when God chooses to answer. On that day God should get the glory. So keep asking. One day we will receive.