dear God, please...

You do not have because you do not ask God.
Stop!
Read that again.
Has it sunk in yet?
I am seriously challenged by that sentence. There are many areas in my life where I want God to move, things I can envision in my mind yet disregard it, thinking it would be impossible in reality. James 4:2 reveals that God desires us to ask. Not just to put our thoughts, hopes, dreams and desires in a box to be later discovered covered in dust in a dark recess of our heart. But to lay the things we want for our lives in God’s hands by asking him. Verse 2 begins by saying, “You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want.” In our own power we can try but can only get so far. It continues further on in verse 3 saying, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives”. That’s an incredible thought. When we ask for something, God looks at our hearts and the core motive behind our request. But even more incredibly, when we ask with the right motive, we are told we can expect our prayers to be answered. Jesus says in Mark that whatever we ask for in prayer and believe is received, so it will be. Jesus also tells us, “Ask and it will be given to you...for everyone who asks receives...”. It’s simple really. Yet I often find myself guilty of thinking of something and wanting it to be reality without actually talking to God about it. Whether it be something in my own life or in someone else’s, I catch myself thinking of the limitation of the situation instead of asking our limitless God to work in the situation for his glory. God desires to grant us our requests. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Matt 7:9. If we, sinners, know a good gift when we see it, how much more would our Father in heaven want to give us, his children, the things we ask for and come from a pure heart? Matt 7:11