Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Ask and you shall receive.. but what do we ask for?


People have been congratulating and reminding me about how old i am because of my birthday. 21st birthdays are usually really big, because of a few things.
1. You are official legal (therefore, all under 21s are illegal)
2. You are eligible to vote
3. You can do practically anything you want without any legal objection from anybody
4. You can drink(alcohol) and watch(PG and X rated) stuff without risks of being arrested
The 4th one is usually the most popular.

Another question people have been asking is what did i wish for my birthday? I don't know who came out with the wishing thingy during birthday cakes. If you wish for something before you blow the candles, you will get whatever you wished for. To me that is total nonsense, it is just a myth to give hope to the hopeless. If that were really true, why would there be poverty? or sick people? So it is either untrue or people have been making stupid wishes.

I know my God promised in Luke 11:9 'So i say to you, ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.' I don't need to wish for things only on my birthdays, i can ask my God anything, anytime. Even the word 'wish' seems uncertain and not confident of actually getting something. But i am going to ask and believe that i am going to get what i asked for.

So, what do we ask for then? Will we get anything and everything that we asked for? Or do we only get what is in God's will? Let's take a look at Numbers 22: 5-21
'And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time. 5 Then he sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor at Pethor, which is near the River in the land of the sons of his people, to call him, saying: “Look, a people has come from Egypt. See, they cover the face of the earth, and are settling next to me! 6 Therefore please come at once, curse this people for me, for they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”

7 So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the diviner’s fee in their hand, and they came to Balaam and spoke to him the words of Balak. 8 And he said to them, “Lodge here tonight, and I will bring back word to you, as the LORD speaks to me.” So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam. 9 Then God came to Balaam and said, “Who are these men with you?” 10 So Balaam said to God, “Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me, saying, 11 ‘Look, a people has come out of Egypt, and they cover the face of the earth. Come now, curse them for me; perhaps I shall be able to overpower them and drive them out.’” 12 And God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.” 13 So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Balak, “Go back to your land, for the LORD has refused to give me permission to go with you.”

14 And the princes of Moab rose and went to Balak, and said, “Balaam refuses to come with us.” 15 Then Balak again sent princes, more numerous and more honorable than they. 16 And they came to Balaam and said to him, “Thus says Balak the son of Zippor: ‘Please let nothing hinder you from coming to me; 17 for I will certainly honor you greatly, and I will do whatever you say to me. Therefore please come, curse this people for me.’” 18 Then Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, “Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do less or more. 19 Now therefore, please, you also stay here tonight, that I may know what more the LORD will say to me.” 20 And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If the men come to call you, rise and go with them; but only the word which I speak to you—that you shall do.” 21 So Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab.

Balaam was a prophet of the Lord judging by the statement from the king that 'whoever he bless is blessed and whoever he curse is cursed'. But, he had a weakness, which was greed for wealth.
1. Israel was God's chosen people
Balaam knew that Israel was God's chosen people and God would never allow His people to be cursed by their enemies. But Balaam ignored that because he was enticed by the amount of wealth he would get from just a few spoken words. He chose to ask God just to confirm. Alright, fair play to him.

2. God said NO! but hear Balaam's excuses
Balaam told the Moabites in vs13,'... the Lord has REFUSED to give me permission to go with you.' Using the exact words that he has just said, he is trying to act holy by telling the Moabites that the only reason he can't go with them is because God said so. Well, at least he got that right by obeying God. But i am pretty sure that it was eating him on the inside. The work 'REFUSED' shows reluctance and only because of authority, he resisted. The sentencing shows that he didn't really believe it himself. Balaam's reply suggests that he was hesitant and unwillingly complied.

The Moabites now returned with even more wealth and people with even higher status to deliver the offer. And this starts to get interesting. Instead of denying the offer straight away, Balaam chose to ask God again. Ridiculous!

3. Do you think God will change His mind because of more wealth?
That was a total insult to God. Who does Balaam think God is? He doesn't need wealth nor praises of man, He is the Kings of kings. But because Balaam was blinded by his own greedy desires and still wanted to seem 'obedient' unto to God. He nagged God.

4. God said Yes.
Incredibly, God gave in to Balaam's nagging. He allowed the desires of Balaam's heart.

Ask and you shall receive. Balaam asked and he received. He received the desires of his heart. In Ecclesiates 8:11 it says:'...therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.' That is the difference between God's perfect will and His permissible will. We still have our free will but unless we ask of what is in His heart, we are going down the wrong path because the hearts of men are evil.

Sometimes we are just exactly like Balaam. We don't want to disobey God because we fear Him. But we desire and are tempted by certain things that we know God clearly disapproves. We still try it anyway, in case He changes His mind. We still stubbornly nag Him about it so that we get the satisfaction without claiming responsibility for it. Then, when things turn out badly we just blame God and claim that we were just following His 'will'.

We need to constantly ask of God for wisdom. Be careful of what we ask, for it shall be given as promised. Guard our hearts and always ask for His heart. Don't try and act smart and question God. When He says 'Do it', just do it. When He says 'Don't do it', don't do it. Period.

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