Today’s verses says : “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” Now, the question is: why is it we don’t receive WHATEVER we ask the Lord for? In Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus is telling us to persist in pursuing God. It is common to see many people give up after a few halfhearted efforts and conclude that God cannot be found. My brother, my sister, knowing God takes faith, focus and follow-through. The main problem with today’s believers is that they give up too quickly: they have been years and years walking in the mud of the world enslaved by sin, but they don’t have the patience to wait for the Lord to cleanse them, to refine them and bring them to a state where He can start acting in their lives! My friends, if you have come to the Lord only to be healed, to get a new house, to marry or to get anything you could not get in the world… then your motives are wrong! That’s the reason why you can keep praying but you will never receive the answer to your prayer. The Bible is clear! God knows you by your name, so He knows what you are longing for in this life. However, all He is asking you to do is to seek first is His Kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33) before you can receive those earthly things you are looking for. In other words, stop believing you will get the blessings of the Lord without Him! Why? Because He is a loving and protective Father who knows that if He blesses you without Him, that blessing is wasted in advance, just like dressing a pig with a white dress while the muddy pond is right in front of Him: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:3). Now do you understand why the Lord wants to refine us first? Yes, He wants us to walk according to His principles for us to be able to get closer to Him, in that place of rest where everything we need is found: healing, marriage, anointing, peace, joy, etc… So, instead of making a shopping list of your desires that the Lord already knows, ask Him for more knowledge, patience, wisdom, love, forgiveness and understanding. He will give them to you and more than that, just like He did with Solomon who asked only for wisdom because those things are according to His will since He wants you to prosper as your soul prospers (3 John 1:2)… and we all know that being blessed by new earthly material possessions would not necessarily make your soul prosper, it can even take you away from the presence of God… But wisdom and knowledge of the Word will make your soul prosper inevitably! Stay blessed in Jesus’ name. [facebook] [retweet]