May I Have Some Gold Fish...Please?

My daughter each day at the same time asks to have a snack. It never fails. It's pure clockwork. She always wants cheese or chew snacks or gold fish. I have never seen her ask hesitantly. She normally says it like this, "Daddy, I'm hungry." I reply with the same response every time, "What are you hungry for?" I don't know why I ask, because I know the answer. She replies, "Can I have some cheese"? She knows before she asks what she wants to eat. So what do I do, I get if for her. She knows we will get if for her or help her get it herself. But regardless she has a snack waiting for her each day in the frig.

While I was on Abba's lap this morning He brought me back to John 15:7. "Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." It goes on to talk about how the Father is glorified by this type of behavior. John 16:23 "...If you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you." Now understand that these passages reside in the midst of themes that flesh out the concept of abiding in the Father. He's no spiritual Santa Claus or magic genie, but He desires to give.

God is always the Giver (see Acts 17:25). That is what He loves to be. And the last phrase of Romans 11:36 says, "To Him be the glory forever." It is more glorious to be a Giver than a getter. Getters look needy. Givers look self-sufficient. So God ordains prayer because He wants us to see Him as gloriously self-sufficient and ourselves as totally needy. So He says in Psalms 50:15, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me." God answers our call for help so that we get the rescue and he gets the honor. "I will rescue you and you will honor me." Similarly in John 14:13 Jesus says, "Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son." Ask for things in my name! Why? So that the Father may be glorified. So He may look glorious...

I need a little more of my daughter in me when it comes to asking from the Father. John 16:24 speaks to me when it says, "Until now you have asked for nothing in my name;" Well, I guess it's time for a snack... Cheese please~