Mark spoke on the subject of prayer last night from Luke 11:9-13. He started by talking about the X Factor, saying that many of us feel you need to have a certain level of goodness before you can come to God, just like the contestants on the X Factor need to have a certain level of talent to succeed (though many, sadly, don’t, as this Mitch Benn song indicates!)
God sees the X factor in all of us, however. If God were on the judging panel, we would all get through because it does not depend on our talent or our virtue, but on His mercy and grace. He delights in giving us all a chance. We have all fallen short of His glory and all need salvation (Rom 3:23), but we do not have to reach a state of sinless perfection before we come to God in prayer! He loves us just as much now as He did before we knew Him and asks us to come to Him in prayer, seeking His help and being confident that we can approach Him boldly (Heb 4:16) because in Him we will find mercy and grace.
This awareness that we approach God boldly (with confidence and candour and cheerful courage) means we do not have to come cowering and in fear. God’s promises are to answer us and tell us great and unsearchable things (Jer 33:3), for He is our Provider. However, the promises in these verses from Luke 11:9-13 are not a blanket promise to give us all our selfish desires, as the Janis Joplin song would like! We ask God, not demand from Him, and the promise is that God will give us the Holy Spirit, not necessarily all the belongings we would like to acquire! Spiritual gifts are what we really need in this life and as we see God for His direction for our lives, He will open doors of opportunity for us and lead and direct us.