Many years ago, before going to the seminary, I was on the mailing list of an evangelical Protestant whose mission was taking Bibles to people behind the Iron Curtain. I continued receiving his newsletter even after I started the seminary because I was interested in the condition of people in Russia, especially since I had studied that language in college. With what little funds I had, I continued to support him as best I could even while in seminary.
That changed, but not by my choice, after one response I made to an editorial I read in his newsletter. In this editorial he claimed that we could receive anything we asked for, anything, if we only ask for it in faith. If we did not receive it, it meant that our faith was not strong enough (according to him).
Well, I used a turn on our gospel story this weekend to counter his argument. My argument went like this:
Jesus said: "Who of you would give your child a snake if he asked for a fish?"
My turn on that phrase: "If your child asks for snake, would you give it to him?"
Just because we ask God for something with the heartfelt belief that He is willing to answer does not bind Him to respond in the way we want. To make the presumption that we know God's will for us and then expect Him to respond in just the way we think we want is unrealistic and not what our faith is truly about.
In other words, sometimes our asking something from God means that He must say “No” to us, because He is a loving father. God will not give as bad things when we ask for good, neither will He give us bad things when we ask for bad.
I know that does not address why bad things do happen to us, but that is a whole other question. What I'm trying to indicate is that God will give us what we truly need not what we think we want. The important point is for us to conform our prayers to our needs and not our wants. If we do that we will get what we ask for in prayer.
By the way, as a result of my responding to this editorial, I was dropped from the newsletter mailing list, with no other comment from him or his ministry. Hhmm!
