Our job is to understand what is good, so that we know what to ask for. God knows what is good for us and is faithful and loving to say “no” to selfish and foolish prayers, no matter how much we want what we’re asking for. If what we want is not in God’s will, then we really don’t want to receive it.
Of course, what we want is not always what we need.
He promises to supply what we need when we “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). There is no chance of things we need not being in God’s will. The promise of “ask and receive,” even with its conditions, can never disappoint. This truth is stated explicitly in 1 John 5:14, “If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” Our requests must be congruent with the will of God. We have another condition to the promise of “ask and receive” in John 14:14, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” Here, Jesus does not promise His disciples anything and everything they want rather, He instructs them to ask “in my name.” To pray in Jesus’ name is to pray on the basis of Jesus’ authority, but it also involves praying according to the will of God, for the will of God is what Jesus always did (John 6:38). Conversely, when the child asks for something that the father knows is beneficial, the father will provide it eagerly because he loves his child. The child may be frustrated and unhappy when he doesn’t get what he asked for, but he should trust his father. If a child asks his father for something the father knows to be hurtful, the request is denied. Our prayers are based in a relationship, as Jesus points out in Matthew 7:8. Our prayers to God are not unlike our requests of men. We begin to see a two-fold purpose of prayer-to increase our understanding of what God calls “good” and to cultivate a desire in us for what is good. The best example of a good gift is the Holy Spirit, according to Luke 11:13. God will give advantageous gifts to His children He will not give us bad or injurious things, no matter how much we clamor for them. So, this is one condition to the promise of “ask and receive”: what we ask for must be good in God’s estimation. Jesus goes on to say that God will not fail to give His children good things (verse 11). But with this and all other verses we must examine the context. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that whoever asks receives, whoever seeks finds, and whoever knocks will find an open door (Matthew 7:7–8). This is the problem of prosperity gospel and word of faith teachings. If we assume that “ask and you will receive” means “ask for anything you want and I’ll give it to you,” then we have turned the Lord into a cosmic genie who serves our every whim.
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