"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."
We spend a significant part of our lives asking for things from others—those who have more than we do or who possess knowledge superior to our own. We ask because we are people in need. In many instances, it is our only way of relating to others. If we never asked for anything, we would end up in a sort of void—a false and impoverished self-sufficiency. Asking and giving: that is the essence of most of our lives and our being. By asking, we acknowledge our need. By giving, we become aware of the endless wealth that God has placed in our hearts.
The same occurs in our relationship with God. A large part of our connection with Him is defined by petition; the rest, by gratitude. By asking, we reveal our radical insufficiency. Asking makes us humble; furthermore, it gives our God the opportunity to show Himself as Father. Thus, we come to know the love God has for us. For, "what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?... How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?"
We do not ask out of selfishness, nor full of pride, nor with greed or envy. If our request is, for example, help with exams, a material favor, healing from an illness, etc., we must examine the true motives of that request in the presence of God. In the intimacy of our soul, we should ask Him if what we have requested will help us love Him more and better fulfill His Will. Often, we will immediately realize the insignificance of a matter that seemed like life or death to us, and we will recognize that what we desperately desired was not that important. We will know how to align our will with the Will of God, and then our petition will be much better directed.
We can ask the Lord to heal us quickly from an illness; but we must also pray that, if this does not happen because His plans are different—mysterious plans unknown to us, yet coming from a Father—He may grant us the necessary grace to endure those pains with patience, and the wisdom to draw from that illness great fruits that benefit our soul and the entire Church.
The first condition of every effective petition is to first conform our will to the Will of God, who sometimes desires or permits things and events that we neither want nor understand, but which will end up being of great benefit to us and to others. Every time we perform this act of identifying our will with God’s, we have taken a very important step in the virtue of humility.
There are countless blessings the Lord expects us to ask for so that they may be granted to us—spiritual and material goods, all ordered toward our salvation and that of our neighbor. "Will you not agree with me that, if we do not obtain what we ask of God, it is because we do not pray with faith, with a heart pure enough, with great enough confidence, or because we do not persevere in prayer as we should? God has never denied, nor will He ever deny, anything to those who ask for His graces in the proper way."
HCD