I Asked for Life

“But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.” ~ Galatians 5:22-24 TM

Recently, the lyrics to the song “I Asked For Life” by Kim Walker really got my attention. “I asked You for life, and You sent Your son to die for me. I asked You for hope, You came in the night and gave me a dream. I asked you for freedom; You broke every chain and gave me the keys.” I thought the answers to the requests made in this song were rather unexpected. We ask for life, we expect life. We ask for hope, we expect for God to give us hope, etc. Oftentimes we miss the answer God is giving us because it doesn’t come in a package we expect. What can we expect? Well, we can expect what 1 Jn. 5:14-15 tells us “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” So, if we ask God to breathe life into a dead place, we can know that God WILL do it, but it most likely won’t be an instant impartation. Most likely we will receive it as we walk through the circumstances God has prepared for us. Satan would use this time to tell us that God isn’t listening, that He doesn’t care, that we don’t deserve it, that we “missed” it somehow. Rather than giving in to Satan or to our flesh, we must choose to stand on the promises of God and EXPECT His answers. When we don’t see God at work, rather than questioning Him we declare what is true of God and question our own responses to that truth. God’s answer to the request for life was death. To give us life, He gave His Son over to death. Often He gives the same gift as we ask for life in the dead places of our heart and life…He calls for death – death to self, death to our own agenda, death to our own way, etc. We must die so that we can truly live. Death hurts, but the abundant life that comes in its place is of greater worth than anything we would seek to hold on to.