If God gave you what you requested, would you dare to ask for more? George Müller helped ten thousand orphans at Ashley Down in England. How did he feed them all? Through prayer. One morning they were out of food, but he prayed God would provide for the children. A milk wagon broke down on their street. The delivery man knocked on the door while George Müller was praying. He asked Müller if the orphanage could use some milk for the children because he was afraid it would spoil before the cart could be repaired. Not long afterward a baker was moved in his own time of prayer and brought bread for the children. Nobody went hungry that day.
Think of Abraham's audacity in prayer. Having received God's promise not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if fifty righteous people were found, Abraham pressed further. What if there were forty-five? Forty? Thirty? Twenty? "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it," God promised. The Lord left and Abraham went home. Alas. There were not ten righteous people in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Imagine the grace of God sparing two wicked cities for the sake of ten people. Abraham might have pressed further. What if there were one righteous person? This is the gospel, for the sake of the one righteous person who ever lived, Jesus, the Father spares all who will turn from sin and believe in him. George Müller never stopped praying for those whom he wanted God to save. Two of those prayers were answered after he died as two men for whom he had prayed gave their lives to Christ.
We sang in a funeral service about Jesus: "Jesus is all the world to me . . . He's my friend." I wonder if our petitions taper off at this point: we don't yet know how much God loves us. We wrongly suspect that answering us is a chore for God. "You have not because you ask not." The better we know God, the more audacious we will become in asking him for his kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth.
