Ask and Receive: What and When?

ASK – RECEIVE?

Jesus said, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you” (Luke 11:10). Things are happening to all of us, but are they the things we have asked for?

We have become enemies to ourselves. We have managed rather well to abuse and mismanage capitalism and convert it into socialism. The two cannot tolerate each other. While they were pulling each other’s hair, a much more dangerous enemy began to manipulate the two. Both systems feared to mention the enemy by name. The incorrect identification of the enemy has led to an unpopular war and the depleting of the economy. Instead of uniting against the enemy, we polarized into a blaming each other. We have become, “a house divided that can no longer stand” (Matthew 12:25).

We are facing a rather cruel irony and that is we are getting what we did not expect, but what we actually deserve. We were not happy with what we had. So we knocked down everything that we regarded as being bad. We looked for something different. We convinced ourselves that anything would be better than what we had. Now that we are receiving what we asked for, we are no longer certain that we have made the right choice. It is becoming intensely painful to realize that what we asked for can be our ruin. It is as if the hand of destiny is upon us and we are being held accountable for having failed at our obligations. From all indications, God’s verdict is against us for having offended Him and failed this nation. Perhaps, if we repent like Nineveh of old, then God in His mercy might look on us and on our nation with favor again (Luke 11:32).

With God all things are possible, but are they with us (Mark 10:27)? Are we willing to admit that we are blind and are being led by the blind (Matthew 15:14)? But then, some things are not possible, even for Jesus (Mark 14:36). He had to pay for our mistakes and so shall we. There is one small chance. If we do not know what we are doing, we might be forgiven (Luke 23:34)?