You Have To Ask

Jesus said to his disciples:
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.
Until now you have not asked anything in my name;
ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.



There was a man that found a magic lantern and he rubbed it and out came the genie and told him that because he freed the genie from being imprisoned in the lamp he would grant the man three wishes.   It was a hot day and the man was very thirsty so he wished for a cold bottle of beer.  The Genie told him he would grant the wish but the bottle would be a special one.  First of all, it would be bottomless.  Once he finished the beer it would fill up again so he would never run out of beer. The second thing is that the beer would always remain fresh and ice cold. The man said that would be fine.  Poof, a frosty bottle of the man's favorite beer appeared and it was chilled to the perfect temperature.  The man tipped the bottle to his mouth and before you knew it he had emptied the bottle. As soon as the bottle emptied he saw that it was filled again.  Once again he drank down the perfectly chilled brew and bang it filled up again.  The thanked the Genie.  The Genie reminded him that he had two more wishes.  The man smiled and holding up the bottle said, "I'll have two more of these."

What Jesus is promising us here is not some magic words to manipulate God the Father.  No, because even if we could we would have no reason to do so.  The Father already gives us everything that is good without us having to ask for it.  Did you just take a breath? It was courtesy of the Father. Are you sitting in a room with an electric light on?  Thank God for the electricity that powers that bulb. Everything we have, everything we pretend to own belongs to the Father. He has our interests at heart and will provide the best of the best for us.  Anything that helps us fulfill our ultimate destiny of being with Him in heaven is there for us. 

He is a good father.  He knows what we need and what we don't need.  He knows what will help and what will hinder us and He sends us things as they are needed.  Sometimes a thing may, in fact, be good for us but He withholds it.  There can be many reasons for this.  First, it could be that the timing of our request is not right so his answer is, "Wait."  Perhaps what we think is good is not good for us so His answer as a loving father would be "No."  Other times, the ones we long for, we will ask and He will immediately provide what is asked for.  He is a good father and will always do what is best for us.  We should always ask for what we need and thank Him for listening to us. Then we wait, or we realize we don't really need what we asked for, or what we ask for comes to us.   Gratitude is the attitude that would be appropriate at this time. 

Pray for the Poor Souls in Purgatory, do it now!