Asking and Thanking

#98     Feb. 22, 2013, Friday, at home, 2pm

Sit quietly and reminisce with Me.

Think of the many times you have called on Me and I have answered.

They are too numerous to count.

Now think of the many times you have called on Me and I did not answer.

Sure you can name sometimes, however, it is not that I did not heed and answer.  I surely answered yet not in your time and not according to your will.

I encourage you to thank Me each time you ask Me.  Even as part of the plea, make the thank you a sincere second sentence.  

For when you begin this simple exercise – asking and thanking combined, you are telling Me that you believe, you trust I will answer.  And that you know that each time you ask I answer, though maybe not according to the exact plea, yet I still answer.

The thanking Me instills in you a stronger trust that I hear all AND answer all.

You do not wait for the answer to appear before you think of offering a thank-you.

Each time you ask, you do so in gratitude that I hear your plea.  That’s it.  It doesn’t depend on a favorable or unfavorable answer from Me whether you will thank Me or not.

Yours must be a thankful faith journey.

Lift your eyes in gratitude that you have such faith that encourages you to ask Your Maker and Saviour and Sustainer all sorts of questions and that they always answer.

So our gratitude comes from knowing the kindness of the One who asks us to beseech Him and knowing that He answers.

When we tag on – ‘maybe not always according to my will but He still answers’ it shows disappointment in the Guy whom we feel should get it right for me all the time.

Do not qualify My answers – believe, because I have told you, that I always answer and add no further follow-up thought to this.

You can always explain to someone who does not know that I respond that it is all in His Good Time and Will.  However as a practicing believer we don’t have to explain it to our heart that He may not answer according to our hearts desire.

You do not have to explain your belief to your head and heart, if you believe in Him.

We limit the worth and worthiness of His answer by saying “It will be according to His Will”.  Well isn’t each answer He gives us ‘according to His Will?”

What I mean is that My answers are always there.  There are no pleas that I do not answer. So your pleas NEVER fall on deaf ears.

It is not Me who does not respond but rather you, who, if the answer doesn’t suit your will, feels you have been ignored or slighted.  Or even worse, I don’t know what I am doing for your good and the good of all.

This is a slippery slope that the devil delights to keep oiling with his comments of ‘gee He seems mean’ or ‘ gee He is ignoring your pleas’, or ‘doesn’t He understand your heartache?’

He keeps nudging you, pushing you to make you feel that you really know better than God.  “Gee if you were God you would do it this way.”

Again it takes us to the Garden of Eden.

We can’t be God, yet the devil tempts us that we can.

We can’t match God’s wisdom and love, yet the devil wants us to think we can.

He, the devil, wants us to live in the present feeling sorry for ourselves because things don’t always ‘turn out’ as we would have them.

When we say the Apostles Creed, do we once mention that ‘I believe in me”?  No, because each ‘me’ is a limited being.

Our hearts should ache to believe in the One who is unlimited, full of love and knows ALL.  He has one focus --  our good and His glory.

How many people do you know who only have your well being as their one and only focus?  No one, right?

Certainly you may know good and kind people but they do not have the fullness in their being to focus only on you. 

Take any circumstance and see how someone who is good and kind at some point has to focus on themselves.  It is only human, it is only natural BECAUSE they are not God.

So God is the One who can do All, Knows All, Cares for All, Loves All.  You can’t possibly love ALL because you do not know All, you cannot serve All, you cannot save All.