Getting What We Want or What We Need

1 John 5:14-15 says, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him."

Lately, I've been hearing a lot about the prosperity gospel. It's the whole idea that God wants to bless us and He wants us to prosper. Do I believe God wants to bless us and that He wants us to prosper? Yes indeed! Do I believe that our ideas of God's blessing and prosperity are too limited? You bet I do! Sometimes I get caught up in thinking of God's blessing as me receiving things...Generally material things. I believe that God can bless us in these ways...But, I also think we often overlook many of His daily blessings, we take them for granted. I also struggle with our modern ideas of what it means to prosper. We have limited our understanding of prosperity to financial success. But, to prosper really means to be happy. We can have no money and be happy, just as we can have tons of money and be unhappy. Some of the prosperity gospel leaders are doing a huge disservice to the true Gospel. They are telling people that if they just believe, they will get what they "want." If you want a nicer car, believe and you will receive. If you want a better job, believe and you will receive. You hear them say that all you need is more faith. If you will increase your faith, you will receive what your heart desires. Hmm, that seems to go against the whole concept of the mustard seed...That with even just a small amount of faith, we can move mountains. The problem I see with this is that it basically pushes God's good and perfect will out of the picture.

Prosperity gospel basically tells us that if we claim something in God's name, we will receive it. The Scriptures do tell us that if we ask, we will receive. But, we forget the part about how the whole asking has to be "according to his will." We can ask all kinds of things, but if they aren't within His will, we aren't going to receive them...No matter how much we believe, no matter how much faith we have. I guess that sounds harsh, but it's the truth.

God will bless us and prosper us, but according to His will, not ours. We may want to be financially secure, but that may not be where God wants us. The main point I guess I'm trying to get across is that God will carry out His will one way or the other. When Jesus taught us to pray, He didn't tell us to ask for all the things we want. He simply instructed us to pray for the things that we need for this day.

Whatever you ask, ask for it according to His will. It's okay to let God know what we want. It's okay to ask Him for incredible things, but we need to ultimately submit to His will. "Let Your Kingdom come, Let Your will be done."