Answers Are Shared

The person in despair has come to a conclusion, 'All is lost.' The settled person also has come to a conclusion. Did they ask a question? Do they really have an answer?

If we don't form questions we may not get answers. If we don't request provision we may not get it.

"What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." James 4:1-3 ESV

Many times we can be empty with nothing to ask. We can also be so full of the wrong thing so we strive without asking or ask amiss in our sense of great need.

Questions can connect us. Requests can open supply.

When I am empty I like to read scripture because that is a place I can reconnect. God can love me there. I need to need Him.

"And David built there an altar to the LORD and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings and called on the LORD, and the LORD answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering. Then the LORD commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time in the high place at Gibeon, but David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD." 1 Chronicles 21:26-30 ESV

A gracious relationship is one of exchange and intimate connection. God's Word is a sword but we need not fear it. We can inquire of God.

Jesus gives a model of an inquiry here:

"But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." Matthew 6:7-13 KJV

Even though verse seven says not to make empty repetitions this prayer has likely been repeated more than most. Why? We see a connection here. There is a depth of exchange. Jesus' questions have answers in them already but they are questions shared with the Father and the answers are shared answers.

We can sit in a spiritual corner and twiddle our thumbs or we can rage in our wanting. There is another option. Grace demands nothing of us but love wants to meet with us today. There are places to go and provisions needed in places. We can make memories today that last. Wisdom is not solitary. Answers are like gifts... they are given.

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another." John 15:16-17 ESV

I love this translation. If we ask of the Father and have true exchange with God we will love one another. The answer will be something shared with us that we want to share with others.