We have a beautiful chocolate point Siamese cat with crystal clear blue eyes. Her name is Claire. She is dainty and graceful and always has a lot to say. She follows me everywhere hoping I will stop what I’m doing and give her some affection. She just enjoys being with me. In fact, she is sitting next to me as I write this. One day as I was walking past the cupboard where her treats are, she jumped up beside it, sat gracefully with one paw up, chattering away. With a smirk, I said to my husband, “she is positioning herself to receive”. As I said it, something resonated within me. Then I wondered is there a way to position ourselves to receive more from God?
When our children ask us for something, they come to us knowing that it is Mom or Dad who have the responsibility to provide what they need. They have learned to trust us over the years because we love them and they know that we are a man or woman of our word. This gives them the confidence to come and ask us for what they need. God wants us to do the same thing. He wants us to approach Him like little children with a child-like faith.
Matthew 18:3 “I assure you that unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven. 4 The greatest in the Kingdom of heaven is the one who humbles himself and becomes like this child. 5 And whoever welcomes in my name one such child as this, welcomes me. NLT
God is our heavenly father and He is a man of His Word. He has promised us in His Word to provide everything that we need.
Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks will receive, and anyone who seeks will find, and the door will be opened to those who knock. Would any of you who are fathers give your son a stone when he asks for bread? ...NLT
In this verse, Jesus invites us to come to him and confidently ask Him for what we need. Just like an earthly father, He wants to give us what we ask for. We need to be in the right place at the right time, be asking and expecting to receive. The woman with the issue of blood made sure she was in the right place at the right time - where Jesus was, even though she was considered unclean and in that culture she was not to be out in public. She reached out and touched the hem of his garment in faith. When Jesus turned around, he didn’t rebuke her, he rewarded her faith by healing her condition. He was pleased that she had reached out to him.
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. NIV
How do we position ourselves to receive from God?
We must genuinely, sincerely believe in God and have faith in His Word. If God said it, we believe it!
We must believe that God responds to His people when they come to him and rewards those to seek him diligently.
We delight ourselves in the Lord and He gives us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4)
We have confidence in God, knowing that we will receive what we’ve prayed and believed for (Mark 11:24)
Follow this pattern and know that God wants us to receive. If you understand this, it will give you the confidence to boldly come before Him and ask Him for what you need.
In baseball, the catcher takes his place on the field. He positions his body posture, glove in hand ready to receive. He is expecting to catch the ball. You can do this by faith when you ask God for healing, provision, wisdom or whatever it is that you need.
He is a good, good father and longs for us to come to him. I want to position myself to receive everything He died to give me!
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