Monday, December 3: Zechariah 10 - Ask.

This chapter continues God’s message of care for His people Judah. God will watch over them. God will care for them.

The very first word of the first verse drew me into thought. Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime; it is the LORD who makes the storm clouds. He gives showers of rain to men, and plants of the field to everyone.

Ask…

God is the maker of rain.God is the caretaker of Judah’s fields and crops. God will care for them. And yet the first word of this chapter is ‘ask.’

Ask…

It is as if God is saying ask for what you need. And isn’t that precisely what Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you (Matthew 7:7)? Yes, God will care and God will watch over and God will provide… but there is something about asking…

It seems there is something about being so dependent that we ask for what we need and God longs to give.

I am not a good ‘asker’ of anyone, so this word and this devotion is a challenge for me. But not the kind of challenge that seems grueling or difficult. It is hard because it calls me to a new place in my walk and relationship with the Lord. I am feeling called to that place of asking for what I need, what I would generally simply assume God would provide.

I am being invited into the place of asking…

Lord, I ask for daily bread… Lord, I ask for safety for friends in Nigeria… Lord, I ask for my kids, jobs and… Lord, for my church growth…

Lord, I am learning to ask. Help me overcome self-reliance that is a barrier between me and a deeper relationship with You. Through Jesus, I pray. Amen.