This will be a really short one, and I'll probably not have time to do much for the next couple of months. I'll try, but ... what's in the horizon is too much work.

BUT, here it is :-)

Sometimes reading two or more un-related texts can be a great eye-opener.
Right now I'm (re-re-re-whatever) -reading Winne-the-Pooh, and have - as always - the text for the next sermon ready on the table.
Now, what I would like you, who read this blog, to attempt is to cross-read with me :-) and allow your mind to dwell on what happens when you relate two un-related texts :-)
Ready ?

Start by reading Matthew 7:7ff

Most people discard this passage out of hand, because they think it is contra-factual. "I asked God to give me .... but he didn't !"

Well ...
Sometimes the price you pay to get what you want, is too high. If your new car is paid with money inherited from a loved one, what would you truly prefer : the car or the person ?
Sometimes, what you ask is interfering with someone else's story with God, and that is not good, in which case God will not grant you your wish. And think. If you ask "life" for a critically ill loved one, and the "life" that is given is a helpless, hopeless suffering ... would you really wish that for anyone ?
You need to be quite clear on what it is that you're asking God to do.
Sometimes you get what you asked for.
Just that !
and really "a new car" ... well ... a model-car can be a new car too :-) Don't think the good Lord doesn't have a sense of humour :-)
And frequently (more often than not, actually) you're asked to do something about it yourself. But I hope to get back to that at a later time (and remind me if I don't :-)

And when you have read the passage from Matthew, and pondered it a bit, please turn to the second chaper of the first Winnie-the-Pooh book "In which Pooh goes Visiting and gets ino a Tight Place".
Consider his strategy for knoking on doors.
Consider his strategy of seeking (and finding)
Consider his strategy for recieving.
And then, consider what you do, when you find yourself - like Pooh - to be Wedged and in Great Tightness.
Do you have a Christopher Robin ?
And are you a Christopher Robin to others in Great Tightness ?
I hope so :-)

God speed :-)