The Spiritual Search

What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Matthew 7:9

Today Chambers talks a little about human relationships between children and parents.  Parents generally give good things to a good child when he or she asks.  He also talks about Christians who simply ask God for things when they are not walking in the light.  These same Christians often say that God has not answered prayer because it is not His will that they have what they have asked for.  This may not be true.  What might be the case is God is not answering because they are not walking in the light as the Bible tells us to in the following verse.

1 John 1:7

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

We must constantly be examining ourselves in order to stay in the light and to be able to communicate with God and have His blessings in our lives.

Chambers:
Never say that it is not God’s will to give you what you ask. Don’t faint and give up, but find out the reason you have not received; increase the intensity of your search and examine the evidence. Is your relationship right with your spouse, your children, and your fellow students? Are you a “good child” in those relationships?

We refuse to look at the evidence that clearly indicates where we are wrong. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want, while refusing to pay someone what I owe him? Have I been asking God for liberty while I am withholding it from someone who belongs to me? Have I refused to forgive someone, and have I been unkind to that person? Have I been living as God’s child among my relatives and friends? 

For most of us, prayer simply becomes some trivial religious expression, a matter of mystical and emotional fellowship with God. We are all good at producing spiritual fog that blinds our sight. But if we will search out and examine the evidence, we will see very clearly what is wrong— a friendship, an unpaid debt, or an improper attitude. There is no use praying unless we are living as children of God.

I admit that I have been in this situation in my prayer life...where I feel like no one is listening...and quite often it really is because I am not in the light. It is reassuring that God my Father does want to give good gifts to me when I ask.  I also think that if I am truly walking in the light, I won't be as likely to ask for the wrong things.

Photo image: I took this one of a little boy pointing to a butterfly in a church parking lot in Pifo, Ecuador. That is his mother standing nearby.