The Art of Asking

I am so often awestruck how God surprises me each day with new revelations into His word. Scriptures I have previously read numerous times suddenly pop out bringing new or renewed insight. This morning was no exception.

I believe that every word in the Bible is true and placed there by God for our benefit. Not every word in the Bible is God speaking but it is placed there for our benefit. For example, some conversations are included that are not what we should believe but are there for us to learn from as not to think, speak or do ourselves.

Even the long lists of genealogies, the sacrifices of animals, how they are to be preformed, and the descriptions for building temples or tents of worship have significance to each and every one of us at some time in our life when our hearts are open to hear from God.

My One Year Bible is marked with a rainbow of colors denoting significant passages that stood out to me. Today I was not excepting to add more highlighting and underlining to new revelations from the LORD... but I was wrong.

This year I want to make 2016 the year of the LORD. I want to spend more time with Him and learn even greater insights into His nature and His person. I wasn't sure at the time those words came out of my mouth what that would entail. I didn't have a foresight as to what that would mean but I was sure as time went on that it would become more defined each day.

Yesterday I watched "Foundations of Freedom" which contained a wealth of information that was too much to take in during one sitting so I didn't delete it from the DVR. Instead I will take a portion of it throughout this year to mediate on or implement into my personal life.

As a result from watching that show, this morning while I was reading the January 10th scriptures I kept in mind to look for a scripture to memorize today with the hopes of finding two. A number of scriptures started to stand out as God revealed more about how life operates.

I have always desired to write each day what God shows me, mediate on those scriptures throughout the day and implement them into my life. Sadly, I have allowed life to deny me that desire. Hopefully, in 2016 I will start to do that on a regular basis.

They say you can create a habit over a 30 day period of time. Today if I don't read the Bible every morning I feel an emptiness, or a lack like I'm missing something. That's because I have made it a habit of reading one, two or three day's readings from my One Year Bible first thing every morning. It has become a habit.

Okay, back to the topic at hand. Petitions.

The first scripture that jumped off the page was in Genesis 24:12:

Then he said, "O LORD God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham.

Abraham's servant was sent to find a wife for Isaac, Abraham's son and this is the prayer of that servant.

For us to have greater success in our life we should be asking for success from God instead of trying to rely solely upon ourselves and the mercy of some other person.

My first thought was that I should say this out loud to God (if only in a whisper) before I even get out of bed each morning along with the other words I speak upon first waking up.

"God grant me success today." It's a simple thing to remember but oh so powerful when we petition this to God and believe in our heart that He will do as we requested.

Jesus tells us in John 15:7:

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

Genesis 24:7 are the words that God inspired to be included by the writer of Genesis. Therefore these are words ordained by God. I will place this passage into my heart so that it will abide with me always. Therefore, I will experience greater success everyday than I would have experienced if I hadn't "declared" God's word.

Job 22:28
You will also declare a thing, And it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways.

You can see the importance of knowing God's word. You can back your thoughts by the word of God so that you know what is possible and what is true.

John 8:32
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

John 17:17
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

The second part of Genesis 24:12 tells us to pray for others. Abraham's servant was sent on an errand for his master. He prayed that he would have success and for God to show his master kindness.

If we want success we should be seeking it not only for ourselves but to bless others with that success as well. The two go hand-in-hand.

James 4:3
You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

God wants us to be successful so that He can bless not only us but others as well. We are not to be selfish with His gifts. The more we sow the more we reap. The more we bless others the more we are blessed in return. The more success we receive and use that success to help others the more success we will have in life. Do onto others… The Golden Rule applies to every area of our life. The parable of the sower is how this world operates. Once we get our life in line to how this world operates the more blessed we are.

If you are miserable then spread some joy so that joy will come back to you. It applies to everything. Don't wait until joy finds you. Don't wait until kindness comes your way. Start tossing that boomerang out there so that it returns back to you. Start rolling that ball up that hill so that when it rolls back it's larger than the one you sent.

The second scripture in Genesis that popped out was in Genesis 24:21 when Abraham's servant thought he might have found what his master had requested (success).

And the man, wondering at her, remained silent so as to know whether the LORD had made his journey prosperous or not.

This is excellent advice. Instead of instantly grabbing hold of what we perceive as success we should remain silent and wait until we know all that we need to know.

How often have we jumped at an opportunity too soon and missed out by not waiting to think it over requesting God for further revelation or insight as to how to proceed. Or as soon as we grabbed hold and accepted it a better opportunity presented itself to us that we've missing out on.

Once we accept that we have found success it's vital to immediately thank God and worship Him.

Genesis 24:26
Then the man bowed down his head and worshiped the LORD.

The more thankful we are to the LORD, the more the LORD will give us to be thankful for.

God surrounds us at all times. We should never place our success in our hands but rather give credit that it came from the LORD and believe that He will establish that success and give us more by putting our trust and faith in Him.

The final scripture I highlighted in Genesis was:

Genesis 24:40
But he said to me, 'The LORD, before whom I walk, will send His angel with you and prosper your way;

Abraham declared to his servant that the LORD would send His angel with his servant to prosper him. When we make known our requests to God, He sends His angel with us to fulfill our request. We are never alone. Not only do we have God on our side but we have His ministering angels with us that take the words that we speak directly to God then get to work into making our words visible or manifested.

Hebrews 11:1 and 3
¹ Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
³ By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

For this very reason we need to be mindful of the words that we speak. They need to be precise. We shouldn't be throwing out random words carelessly. Our words are more powerful than we realize. Too many bad things are manifested in our life that we don't even realize we requested by the words we spoke.

Thank you LORD for sharing Your Word, giving new insight, renewing our mind to Your Words and for guidance and direction for our life. I pray this blesses those who take the time to read and meditate on Your word.