Our devotion this week, Pray Effectively, comes from the YouVersion Bible App. It was provided by Answers with Bayless Conley. For more information, please visit: http://www.answersbc.org
ASK: The Third Step in Effective Prayer
In the last two devotionals we discovered that praise and repentance are the first two steps to effective prayer. Today I want to show you the very important third step of asking.
Last time we talked about how repentance is searching your own heart and asking God to put the spotlight on it, and then repenting of anything that He shows you. When your heart is clean, you can have confidence before God when you ask.
As 1 John 3:21-22 says,
21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.
In Matthew 7:7-11, Jesus tells us,
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Pretty clear, isn’t it? God loves you and wants the very best for you. Be careful not to water down the words of Jesus, or somehow try and explain them away or complicate them. He meant just what He said.
But there are some conditions. And next time we will look at those conditions for receiving what you ask God for.
