Can you give me your understanding of the scripture Luke Chapter 11 verses 9 -15. We had our men’s bible study last night and one of the guys is stuck on this. He believes that this scripture (the ask and it will be given section) means that you can ask for anything and God will give it to you. Bad or good. I tried to explain to him that Jesus was talking of the Holy Spirit and Faith. But I would appreciate any further depth on this.
In Luke’s version of this teaching Jesus said our Father in Heaven will give the Holy Spirit to all who ask. In Matt. 7:7-11, a parallel passage, Jesus said that the Father loves to give good gifts to His children.
In Matt. 21:21-22 He said that if we believe and do not doubt we will receive whatever we ask for in prayer. He made a similar statement in Mark 9:23. In James 1:17 we’re told that every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord and Romans 8:28 says that He’s working all things together for our good.
Putting this all together, I think we can conclude that God will give us those things we ask for that are consistent with His nature, which is always good.
From time to time I hear people claim that God gave them something that appears to be against His nature, such as permission to get a divorce, or to turn away from some project they previously said He was leading them toward, or to take on so much debt it winds up enslaving them.
I don’t think these things are answers to prayer. I think these are cases where people are using God to justify doing something they decided on their own to do. I am certain that God will never give us anything that would require us to sin.
Psalm 37:4 says if we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our heart. To me that means if we give ourselves to Him, He will place in our heart those things He wants us to desire, and then He will give them to us. And when He does, we’ll realize it’s just what we’ve always wanted.