Ask

Do you ever have those passing daydreams? About big or small things, doesn't matter. A new car with seat-warmers (indulgent, but wonderful. Oh, and paid off). Salmon for dinner (the price of it isn't in the grocery budget. We're having leftover spaghetti). No upper back pain (absolutely serious, it's a condition called "LORDosis"--yes really). So I am talking about both trivial and decently important things that float through our heads during the course of a day. I realized today it happens probably a hundred times in my day. Maybe someday I'll count just for the same of counting.

Yet I also realized I hardly ever pray for these things. I think about, imagine, yearn for them...but I rarely ask God for them. Too ridiculous, I think. Or too trivial (although I do pray for and nearly always receive a parking space in the first aisle at Walmart). Or too far-fetched (really? An interior decorator and a big budget? Smile). But this morning I read this and it's stuck with me all day:

Ask the Lord for rain in the spring, for he makes the storm clouds. And he will send showers of rain so every field becomes a lush pasture. (Zechariah 10:1 NLT)

God says, simply, ask Me.

He's the One who sends the rain in just the amounts to create lush fields. Whatever is on my mind, He says, just get in the habit of asking Him for it. As any good parent with a kid you love like crazy yet who peppers you all day long with requests, He will decide what's good and what's not for me. And sometimes you just love to dump blessings and yes-es on your kids just because all their asking is just so endearing.

I have a thing I do everyday when I open up my Bible. I take my bookmark and randomly stick it somewhere else in my Word and when I am done reading and praying, I open up to the bookmark and journal what's underlined on that page. Almost without exception and down to specific words, I find it confirms what God has already said to me as I've read. Today my bookmark fell to these verses in Luke 11:

"Lord, teach us to pray....And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." (Luke 11:9, 10 NLT)

So, I think I'll pray for an interior decorator, the neighbor's dogs to quit barking, a breeze when I'm walking...oh yeah and always those parking spaces. Even though I still ate leftover spaghetti for dinner, I felt like Jesus taught me something about prayer today.