November 18 – Do You Know What to Ask For?
Dear Marisa,
«And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.»
(Mark 10:51)
All of us know what it’s like to go round in circles. To pray our way through one financial disaster only to be met by another. To receive healing for one illness just in time to be knocked off our feet by the next.
Oh, we try. We pray. We exercise our faith. But we keep getting caught in the same old problems over and over again. Why? Because all too often, we don’t actually know what it is we need to be praying for.
I can almost hear your reaction. «Believe me, Brother Copeland, that’s not my problem. I know what I need. It’s getting that need met that’s got me running in circles.»
That’s what most other folks think too. So they spend all their time working on getting. They waste their energy praying for things they don’t really need and asking for things they don’t really want. Then they wind up going nowhere fast.
Look with me at Mark 10, and I think you’ll see what I mean. Blind Bartimaeus sat by the roadside begging when Jesus passed by. «And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me…. And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way» (verses 47,50-52).
Now I want you to think about something for a moment. In the light of what the Scriptures tell us, how many needs did Bartimaeus have? Did he have just one? No! He wasn’t simply a blind man, he was a beggar. He probably had more problems than you could shake a stick at, and all those problems would have seemed like legitimate needs to Bartimaeus. But it was sight he needed. If he could obtain his sight, all the rest would fall into line.
He knew that. So, when Jesus said, «Bartimaeus, what do you want Me to do for you?» he knew exactly what to ask for and he got it.
Jesus is just as available to you today as He was to Bartimaeus. He’s just as willing to meet your need. The question is, do you really know what to ask for?
Think about that. Pray about it. Let the Lord Jesus open your eyes and show you what you really need. If you do that, your prayers will take on a whole new power. Instead of hitting around at the edges of your problems, they’ll go straight to the heart–and solve them. And you won’t have to waste your life running in circles anymore.
