Praise and repentance are the first two steps to effective prayer.  Today I want to show you the very important third step of asking.

Repentance is searching your own heart and asking God to put the spotlight on it, and then repenting of anything that He shows you.  When your heart is clean, you can have confidence before God when you ask.  As 1 John 3:21-22 says,

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.  And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.     

In Matthew 7:7-11, Jesus tells us,

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  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!”

Pretty clear, isn’t it?  God loves you and wants the very best for you.  Be careful not to water down the words of Jesus, or somehow try and explain them away or complicate them.  He meant just what He said.