The BIG catalog

Jesus said we could.

He said we could ask.

He said we could ask the Father for anything in his name and we will receive and have abundant joy.

Because of this I’m asking for big things.

“23 In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. 24 Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full. 25 “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father. 26 In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; 27 for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father. 28 I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.”’

John 16:23-28 –

When I was a kid the Christmas catalogs would come out and get sent to homes. The toy section would get almost worn out from me and my 4 siblings pouring over it. There were all kinds of toys and all kinds of price ranges. When I was really young I would ask for whatever excited me, usually car related like a ride on car or maybe a fancy gun that would shoot plastic bullets and launch plastic grenades, not even looking at the price. As I got older, I realized there were limits to my parents’ resources, I quit wasting my time and theirs asking for things that they couldn’t afford.

Life has moved past that phase. I don’t have parents to ask things of any longer. I have learned some things. I now have a Heavenly Father. God isn’t the kind of Father like my dad with limits. He has no limits on budget. My wish list has changed too. My wish list isn’t based on toys that I will play with. (Mary calls my tools toys and is surprised every time I find another kind of saw that I want and will say something like, “don’t you already have a saw?” To which my response is, “not like this one…”).

My wish list now is for impossible things. Things like like healing a friend who has stage 4 cancer, healing a marriage that has shattered beyond repair, giving a couple who cannot conceive, a child, repairing broken relationships, returning straying children to the fold, bringing every household in my neighborhood into a saving knowledge of Jesus. These things, these requests are humanly difficult if not impossible but I believe in and serve a God who creates from nothing – everything, who among many other miraculous things empowers boys to slay giants, who leads his people through a sea without them getting their feet wet, who gives sight to men born blind, who dies for me, and is raised to life for me.

My wish list is now my prayer list. God can still say no, or wait, but he can also say yes. The only request He won’t answer is a request that isn’t made. I will continue to ask for difficult, even impossible things.

Tell me, how can I pray for you? I will pray for you and with you. But you can pray yourself, for the difficult, even impossible things.