God Proves His Goodness through Your Prayers by Rick Warren

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7 NIV).

When you forget how eager God is to help you, it’s easy to start depending on yourself and to stop asking God for his help and provision.
Perhaps you only ask God for the “big stuff” and not the “small stuff.” Guess what: Everything is small to God. None of your requests are big in God’s eyes! He has every hair on your head numbered, and he knows how many fell out in the sink this morning.

You’re not bothering God when you give him your requests. He’s the one who set up the system of prayer in the first place. That’s why the New Testament tells us more than 20 times to ask for whatever we need in prayer: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7 NIV).

If it’s big enough to worry about, it’s big enough to pray about. Worry won’t solve it, but prayer will.

God grows your faith and trust the same way a parent teaches a child to trust (Luke 11:13). First, the child recognizes an unmet need. Second, the child expresses that need. Third, the parent meets that need.

God uses this same cycle to teach you how to trust him. You have an unmet need. You express that unmet need to God. God meets that need, and you learn to trust him more. If you’re not expressing your needs to God, how can you grow in trust? That’s the only way you learn.

God proves his goodness when you ask. But you must wait patiently for God’s timing to deliver. God often does not give immediate answers because he wants to test your faith.

We learn to trust God by watching for the many ways he meets our needs and answers our prayers. This reminds us that God is reliable and can be counted on.

Talk It Over

What thoughts keep you from asking God for his help (such as “I don’t deserve God’s goodness,” “I need to work hard first,” or “God is good but maybe not all the time”)?
One of the main ways God tests our trust and our faith is through money and finances. Why do you think this is so?
What do you need help with today? Ask God for his help, but start with expressing gratitude for what he’s already given you.

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