What surprises heaven will bring! When the shadows flee away and all is made plain, we’ll discover how much we missed by not asking for it. No wonder God will have to wipe away tears.

Interestingly, many of the things we strive for are among the things we might have had if we had asked for them. Fussing over supposed deserved offices in the church, material possessions, and other gains might well have been ours had we sought them in prayer. All the mileage rolled up on life’s odometer was unnecessary — the arguing, complaining and bitterness. Ernest prayer could have provided what conflict denied… “…ye have not because ye ask not.”

Some do not ask because their first recourse is not to prayer. When desire surfaces, human effort is the first avenue taken for achievement. The phrase “All we can do now is pray,” is the child of such carnal reaction. The opposite ought to be true. Prayer should be the first means of securing the desires of our hearts.

Others do not ask because they have limited prayer to spiritual needs. They think it right to pray about things for the church or for things that have to do with witnessing, but God is ruled out as a supplier of daily needs or wants. Such reasoning has no basis in Scripture and should have no place in the Christian life. To the child of God there must be no separation of the sacred and secular. Everything must be done for the glory of God. All desires are either subjects for prayer or they are wrong.

What are you missing that you ought to have? It’s possible that you have not, because you ask not!