2026-02-19 Lent - Day 2 Lent Day 2 Good Morning! Today is the first Thursday of Lent. Today we turn our attention to prayer. Matthew 7:7-11 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him. I love this scripture! But let’s take pause and understand that God is not a Genie in a bottle! We can’t simply make a wish and expect it to be handed to us. That is not a humble prayer, but a prayer of greed and self righteousness. Prayer is a state of submission and humility to our Creator. We should always remember to ask for God’s will to be done, not the will of our own. Let’s break it down. “Ask” is an admission of need. We constantly need the presence of God in our lives whether we know it or not. “Seek” is the confirmation we are actively seeking God. Seeking God simply means to ask God to be involved in all things pertaining to our lives. If our search for God is humble and consistent, the Holy Spirit will gently speak to our heart. Some would call it our conscience, but it is really the Holy Spirit that lives in all of us. If we feed it, the Spirit intensifies. If we starve it, the Spirit shrinks. It’s just that simple. God isn’t a Dictator and won’t just barge in where He isn’t welcome. When we do something wrong or that is not instep with goodness and righteousness, we feel a small tug in our heart. When we begin to train our spirit to listen for that small tug, it becomes very easy to understand God’s will for us. “Knocking” is another way of saying we are seeking God and asking God to open doors for us. In doing so, we are in a sense asking God to keep the doors closed that open up to darkness, or evil. There are lots of snares in the world that we can easily fall into that can bring harm to our inner peace. Remember the piece of scripture in the Lord’s Prayer where He says, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”? BINGO! That is exactly what Jesus is referring back to in this scripture. A prayer of humility and heartfelt requests of goodness and righteousness are answered. Perhaps not in the way we think they should be, but if we ask for “God’s will” to be done, we are asking for God to perfect our prayer. God’s will finds a way to bring peace, even inside the darkest storms. Each one of us, at one time or another, has shopped for the perfect gift for a child, grandchild, spouse, or a close friend. Each time we find that perfect gift, our hearts are filled with joy. To be honest, that’s a result of us just looking through an Amazon list or looking through the shelves of Walmart! LOL! If that is good, think about how perfect God’s wonderful gifts for us can be enjoyed! And to take it to yet another level, how much those gifts we receive can be shared to bring joy to others. Something to think about. Blessings,