Why doesn't God do what we ask him?

A lot of people have tried praying, and for a lot of people, it hasn’t worked. I don’t usually admit it to myself, but when I think about that, it gets me genuinely annoyed with God – like, how hard would it have been just to give these people what they wanted? Surely, you answer their prayers, they realise that you heard them, and they believe in you, they love you.

In some cases I’m willing to let him off, because it seems like he would have to brainwash people to give other people what they wanted, but some things, stuff like illnesses, I’m sure God can fix, because I’ve seen him do it for different people at different times.

So why not? There’s even a bit in Luke’s gospel where Jesus says to his disciples “Ask and it will be given to you”!

He carries on and says something like this:

“You’re all Dads, if your kids ask for a fish, would you give them a snake? If they ask for eggs do you give them a scorpion? No! And you’re just people! If you lot know how to give good gifts to your children, can’t you be certain that your perfect Father in heaven will give his Spirit to anyone who asks him?” (Luke, Chapter 11)

So this is the picture Jesus uses to describe it. God is like our perfect Dad. So I was thinking about Dads, and what kind of Dad is a good Dad.

Quite often you hear about people whose parents have split up, and their parents are basically competing to get them the best presents, and I always think ‘NO! STOP GIVING THEM STUFF AND BE THERE FOR THEM. Spend time with them, look after them, actually talk to them.’ Possibly this is a bit strong, but I think most people would agree that you want your dad to, you know, go to the football with you (or whatever else girls do in this situation!). You don’t want a dad who lives at the other end of the country, who skypes you occasionally but mainly just gets you an iPhone whenever you want one.

So now I’m looking at what Jesus said and I notice that he doesn’t say, ‘if you lot can give your kids presents, can’t God give you stuff when you ask for it?’, he doesn’t promise that God will give them things, he promises that God will give them his Spirit. When Jesus describes what that means later on, he pretty much says that God giving us his Spirit is God staying with us always. He says, “I will not leave you”. He says “we will come to you and make our home with you”. (John, Chapter 14)

Maybe, maybe, maybe, this is partly why God doesn’t just do whatever we ask. He hears our prayers, I am completely convinced that he does not forget a single one. But he knows that what we don’t need, is another Dad who gives us lots of stuff to make up for the fact he doesn’t really love us properly. He knows that we need something better and bigger than a God who just tells us to get on with our lives and then, if you need anything just leave a message and he’ll get round to it.

I think that when we ask God to do something for us, to change a circumstance, or heal someone, we’re not asking too much of him. We’re asking too little.

We should be asking him to come and live with us – for us to spend more time together, for us to get to know him, for us to trust him with everything, for us to love him and for him to love us. It sounds ridiculous compared to what we usually expect from God, but when Jesus said he came to bring us “life to the full” I think that’s pretty much what he meant. And when I’ve really, honestly asked God for that, that’s pretty much what it felt like.