Snakes & Ladders, Anyone?

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:7-11)

I gave the Father’s Day message using this passage of Scripture during Sunday School not too long ago. Put them all into stitches of laughter as usual. But behind the jokes, laughter, and humor, there lies a subject that many of us question: If we will always receive what we ask for, seek what we find, and get the door to open whenever we knock, why is it that God sometimes seems to say no?

Generally, God answers in 3 ways when we ask of something from Him: Yes, wait, or no. We definitely don’t have a problem with God saying “yes”. We can understand why God says “wait”. But the problem comes when God says “no.” This is what we find difficulty accepting. There are 2 possible reasons why God sometimes says no.

1) It is a “no” because it is not good for you.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights.” (James 1:17)

God only gives us things that are good and perfect for us. Therefore, if God doesn’t give us what we ask for, one possibility is because we are asking for something that is not good for us. Therefore God withholds it from us for our own good.

The tricky part here is the definition of “good”. To us, the things that we want, or the things that we think we need are good in our eyes. But to God, the things we perceive as good may not be as good as we think they are. God, in His goodness, ultimately knows what is good for us and what is not. And He knows how to give us what is good in His wisdom. He will not give us something which we think is good, but which is in actual fact, bad for us.

But the question arises when we say: How come God doesn’t grant my request, even though what I ask for is benevolent in nature? This brings us to the second possibility:

2) It is a “no” because it is not according to His will.

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (1 John 5:14, 15)

This verse accurately balances the factor of human persistence with the factor of God's sovereignty. It points out that God is in no way obligated to give an affirmative answer for all our requests. If God has to say “yes” to all our requests, who is the real God then?

The bible says that we can be confident of receiving what we ask of Him “if we ask anything according to His will”. Accepting and recognizing God’s sovereign will in all our affairs is one of the most important lessons for any child of God to learn. The pill of God’s absolute sovereignty is often the hardest pill to swallow.

The question that arises is: How then, do we know that we are praying according to His will?

The only way we can pray according to His will is when we know what His will is. In order to know what God’s will is, we have to live in a close relationship with Him, keeping in step with the Spirit. When our lives are in tune with the Spirit’s leading, our lives are aligned to what God wills for us. And when our lives are aligned to what God wills for us, we will automatically want the same things that God wants for us. Therefore, we will know how to pray according to His will, and be sure of the affirmative answer. The greatest joy for a Christian is to discover what God’s will is, and finding delight in it.

In the end of the matter, one thing is clear though. God will NEVER answer in a way that harms us. As I told the kids during Sunday School: When you ask your father for Snakes & Ladders, he will either say “yes” and give it to you, or “no” and don’t give it to you. But he will NEVER give you ladders... and rattlesnakes to go with it! If our earthly, imperfect fathers know how to give good things to you, “how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”