"Ask and you shall recieve" Can we ask for anything?

Upvote:1

What Jesus means is that you will not go without what you need. Take a look at Matthew 6:25-32 I'm primarily focusing on versus 31 & 32.

"So never be anxious and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or, ‘What are we to drink?’ or, ‘What are we to wear?’ 32 For all these are the things the nations are eagerly pursuing. Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things."

You can pray for all sorts of things like strength, wisdom, discernment or good judgement, patience, his holy spirit.

Here is a way of illustrating the situation. Imagine God is your friend. This friend would do anything to make sure you did well. Your friend has the means to do anything or buy anything. What happens when you start using that friendship to gain money and valuable things?

What you ask for shows your motive. If you ask for things that help you keep Gods commandments then he will indeed bless you. If you ask for thing out of desire for personal gain selfishly then God will ignore your prayer.

Look at the example of Jesus. He owned nothing, but the clothing he wore. Another guiding scripture is yet another verse from Matthew 6:19-21:

“Stop storing up for yourselves treasures on the earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Rather, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Upvote:4

No, you cannot ask for anything and expect to receive it. You can only expect God to give you what you pray for if what you ask for is consistent with His will.

See 1 John 5:14-15

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

Don't expect God to give you what you ask for if what you ask for is not in His will.

From Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary (Emphasis mine)

5:13-17 Upon all this evidence, it is but right that we believe on the name of the Son of God. Believers have eternal life in the covenant of the gospel. Then let us thankfully receive the record of Scripture. Always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labour is not in vain in the Lord. The Lord Christ invites us to come to him in all circumstances, with our supplications and requests, notwithstanding the sin that besets us. Our prayers must always be offered in submission to the will of God. In some things they are speedily answered; in others they are granted in the best manner, though not as requested. We ought to pray for others, as well as for ourselves. There are sins that war against spiritual life in the soul, and the life above. We cannot pray that the sins of the impenitent and unbelieving should, while they are such, be forgiven them; or that mercy, which supposes the forgiveness of sins, should be granted to them, while they wilfully continue such. But we may pray for their repentance, for their being enriched with faith in Christ, and thereupon for all other saving mercies. We should pray for others, as well as for ourselves, beseeching the Lord to pardon and recover the fallen, as well as to relieve the tempted and afflicted. And let us be truly thankful that no sin, of which any one truly repents, is unto death.

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