Ask Boldly. Pray Boldly.

About three years ago, the Lord walked me through a season of life where He taught me how to make my requests known to Him and the power in making my requests known to Him. He gave me this perspective that helped me to understand that when I make my requests known to Him, I welcome Him into my life and the things I’m facing therefore leading me to laying it all down at His feet.

Because of that perspective, when I was 22 I began to let Him call all the shots. Making my requests known quickly turned into absolute surrender in everything. I was in a season of life where my prayer life consisted of prayers like “Lord, if this isn’t your will, make it impossible for me to obtain” or “If you’re not calling me to this, close the door in my face and lock it. Make it impossible for me to pursue”. I prayed that prayer over relationships, jobs, internship opportunities, where I was living, school.. I prayed that prayer over everything.

When the opportunity to go on the World Race presented itself a year ago, I prayed that prayer over my application. I ask the Lord to make this impossible if this wasn’t from Him.

It became almost a natural reflex to pray that prayer over everything that came into my life.

Three weeks ago the Lord brought me to this parable in Matthew and began to build onto that foundation He established three years ago.

“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!”

Matthew 7:7-11

Three weeks ago, my team was finishing up our race in Cape Town, South Africa. We were doing this thing called “ATL” which means ‘Ask the Lord’. The purpose behind ATL is to have absolutely nothing planned so we are pushed to ask the Lord for absolutely everything. Which inevitably leads us to watch all the wild ways the Lord will show up because He’s faithful to supply every need. It’s in His character, it’s in His nature, it’s the very promises He made us. He will always show up, we just had to ask Him to.

During that time, my teammate shared how the Lord was telling her He’s ready to show up for us in powerful ways, we just need to ask Him to. I was reminded of the bold prayers He taught me to pray and I felt the Lord pulling those two lessons together and I spent a lot of time meditating on it.

The Lord then proceeded to ask me, “Hanna, if you come to Me and boldly make your requests known, then why aren’t you asking Me to boldly show up in your everyday life?”

I was honestly a little scared when I heard Him ask me that.. and felt convicted. I quickly began to notice how instead of directly asking Him to show up, I would just hope and wish He would because He’s the God of the universe and He knows what I need so He would just give it to me when He saw fit, right?

Wrong. That’s the equivalent to needing help but not asking for it because someone should know you need help. That’s not how it works. We have to ask for help when we need it.

So that’s what I did. I began to ask the Lord to boldly show up in my day. It would be the first thing I’d pray in the morning; “Lord, I want to see you today. I’m boldly asking you to boldly show up today.. Whatever that may look like, I want to see you move”.

And He did.

It was one week before heading home and my team was facing financial hardship so we asked the Lord to help us. I heard the Lord say, “I am the God of abundance” and another teammate felt like He laid it on their hearts to fundraise. So we reached out to a few people asking for donations. Our goal was to raise $200 which would give everyone $5 a day for food over the next 5 days. 

As we began reaching out to supporters and praying for the Lord to provide, one of my teammates ended up testing positive for COVID. Immediately the financial stress of quarantine costs fell on us. 

I remember laying on the floor praying, “Okay, Lord. We need you to show up” and in less than 24hrs, the Lord provided over $1,500 which ended up covering all food costs, COVID costs, fully funding my teammate who was still $475 from being fully funded, and opening up a ministry opportunity to feed the homeless in Cape Town.

He showed up as the God of abundance and blessed us beyond our requests.

If there’s anything you take away from this blog, I hope it’s that God is faithful to provide and that He always provides in abundance.. We just have to ask Him to.

He’s sitting at the edge of His throne, eagerly waiting for His people to ask Him for miracles because He wants to provide, He wants to care for us, He wants to show us just how deeply He loves us.

He cares about the little things just as much as the big things. We need to have the faith to believe He will answer when we call on Him and trust He’ll show up when we ask Him to.

Last week, I was driving to my friend’s house in a rainstorm. I couldn’t see the car in front of me and it was making me nervous. I began to ask the Lord to hold off the rain until I safely made it to my friend’s house and IMMEDIATELY, the rain stopped.

Most would argue coincidence or some would say I drove out of the storm, but not me. I wouldn’t dare rob The Lord of the glory, honor, and praise in showing up and answering my cry for help when I needed Him.

Plus, why would I rob myself from being loved in such an intentional way from my Lord?

Friends, He’s a big God and He delights in showing up in big ways for His people.

Boldly ask Him to!

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Hebrews 4:16