One of my favorite scriptures is in James 1:
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
And what that means is if we need anything, we can ask, and the Lord will answer us. He won’t laugh at us (or “upbraideth”) if we ask something silly.
But the two following verses might be even more important to know:
“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
“For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.”
That tells us that getting answers from the Lord is conditional. We can’t just assume that he will answer all our questions and respond to all our prayers. We must have faith. But not just any faith. We have to have perfect faith, “nothing wavering.” Because if we waver, it would be like we were like a wave in the sea – always moving, never staying in one place. And if we are moving around like that, then we aren’t rooted firmly in our foundation, Jesus Christ. And how can we root ourselves? With faith. Perfect faith.
This scripture blesses us because if I didn’t know that I could pray, my questions would never be answered. I would probably be lost without His help, and it would be pretty difficult to know how I could stay righteous.
That scripture teaches us that we can pray, and I am extremely grateful for that. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.