God hears our tender pleas

Charlotte placed her blender on the kitchen table. She wanted a cool drink and was going to make a pina colada green smoothie.

Frozen bananas……pineapple chunks……coconut milk……honey……baby spinach.

She placed all the ingredients in the blender and started to blend. Her second son, one-year old Josh ran into the kitchen, shouting, “please, please” with his hands stretched towards Charlotte. His three-year old brother, William, came running after him.

“Yoghurt, please. Yoghurt, please”, William begged.

Charlotte was getting used to seeing them ask her for bites of fruits and yoghurt every time she operates the blender. She gave each of them a piece of pineapple and a spoonful of yoghurt from the fridge.

“Alright boys, get back to the living room and watch your show with Daddy. I will join you soon, and we can have smoothie, okay?”.

Charlotte remembered the first sight where Josh and William stood in front of her chanting, “please, please”, asking for yoghurt and diced fruits. Those tender pleas were almost heart-breaking, and she could not resist responding to them. They sounded so sweet and innocent. They sounded vulnerable and helpless too.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:7-11).

Believers have a clear command to ask, seek and knock. For each of these – ask, seek and knock – there is an assurance of being answered.

Our God is not an insensitive Father. He delights to give us what we ask according to His will.

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, 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 the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).

Sometimes, the answers are delayed. Let us keep asking. He hears, He listens.

“And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:7-8).

Dear Lord, while we are waiting for answers to our requests, help us to keep trusting You. Help our faith not to shake but to be deeply rooted in You. Amen.