Ask, Receive, Knock

Boy, I go too long without posting...
I want to share a CRAZY story that happened a few weeks ago.
So one of the only downsides of summer camp is the nostalgia you experience all schoolyear long when coming home..I know when I come home from camp I miss it like CRAZY! But some days are worse than others. So for a week or so I just started to feel a lot of sadness in just missing Sky Ranch and ESPECIALLY the people there-be it counselors from sigma, counselors from quest, or counselors from the past..or fellow campers! So yeah, I would just feel down, and during my quiet times I would pray about it. I would usually say something like, "God I really miss so-and-so" or "I'm really sad that I haven't talked with this person in awhile". It was sort of like I was complaining to God..Not that God doesn't want to hear everything we have to say, because he DOES..But That's all I would pray.
So during that week or so, school started getting crazier.  And for me, the crazier life gets, the more I usually miss camp. So I was in theatre first period one day that week and I started telling God how much I missed camp. I told him how much I would love to just hear from SOMEONE at camp.
"Hannah, why don't you just ask me?"

God asked me that very question, and literally I had one of those "duh" moments.  So I did just what God told me to do. I asked Him to just hear from one person, anyone, from camp. Now i know this probably sounds weird but it had been a super hard week and some of the best encouragers I know are the people I met from Sky Ranch! So I ASKED.
That was first period. I'm going throughout my day, and after hearing God's voice telling me to ask this of Him, I really did have faith that I was going to receive. But as I passed through second and third period out of my four classes I have each day, I had not heard from anyone. It was weird though..even though I hadn't heard from anyone, I didn't ever get angry with God for not delivering..I just continued asking. But as I continued asking, my prayers changed, along with my heart. When before I wanted to hear from people for my own benefit, I suddenly found myself praying and asking that this only be done if it were his will, and if I were to have contact with anyone from camp, it would be something I would blatantly be able to use for God's glory...But I still didn't hear for anyone..I just thought God had wanted to teach me a lesson through this, and it wasn't in his plan for me to talk to any sky ranch counselors or campers that day.
Well.
I get to fourth period English, my very last class of the day. And I still don't receive a text.  But as the dismissal bell for the end of the day is ringing, I check my phone and I have a text from my old camp counselor of two years, Krista. Guys, of all people-I had not talked to Krista in around a month/month and a half. So I sort of just stare at my phone pretty awed-out by Jesus, when I finally open the text message. I was expecting a message saying something such as, "Hi! How are you?" or whatever..But it was a link to a website I have NEVER heard of. Just a link! So I click on it, and it takes me to this BEAUTIFUL poem about the concept of God's grace-and how we attempt to earn it ourselves..This is something I have always struggled with, and it was like God was sending me a little reminder in the craziness of my week.
Maybe I didn't do a very good job of telling the story on this blog, but to me it was a total God-moment.  And the funny thing is that this 'God-moment' is so simple in concept, but so crazy hard for me to understand.
"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." Luke 11:9-10
That is SUCH a crazy promise the Lord is making there!!! God promises to provide! I used to get really tripped up over this verse. Because I know I've been praying for a long time that chipotle will deliver and that STILL hasn't happened! I've asked-so why haven't I received? But it brings me back to my story. God would still have been just as sovereign as He always has been if I had not received that text from Krista during fourth period. Who are we to say when God should give us what we want? I don't even think we know what we want! God promises that in all things he works for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). I believe in a God who will not let us settle for what we think is best. That doesn't mean we will always be happy with what He gives us and does not give us..But guys think about what would happen if we started to pray boldly!  Do you ever sit in church and hear a sermon that's super convicting-but you don't pray about it? I know I do that all the time! I know I tell God so often how much I wish there would be a revival at my school-but how often do I ASK Him to change the hearts of the students around me at school? If we as a body of believers begin to pray boldy and ask for things such as zeal for His kingdom and crazy love for others and growth and healing and sanctification I know he will provide! He may not provide when we want him to or in the way we want Him to- but I feel like in so many situations God is up in heaven wondering why we simply don't ask for the things we yearn for.
But we need to BELIEVE that God will answer.
"But when he asks he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord, he is a double minded man, unstable in all he does."-James 1:6-8
God desires a heart of faith, and a heart of submission! By trusting that the Lord will provide, it leads us away from worry and His desires are made our own! Pray boldly, because Abba Father will answer!
Praying for you guys always!