Why Don’t We Ask for God for Big Things?

You do not have because you do not ask. James 4:2

Scripture and experience make it clear that God is not a genie in a bottle who is obligated to give us whatever we ask for. He is an omniscient deity who has His own counsel, will, and plan. Yet in mysterious ways known fully only to Himself, God invites humans into those councils and listens to their requests. 

We see this with Abraham, who was told God’s plan for Sodom in advance and talked God down to sparing the city if only 10 righteous men could be found. Moses asked God not to destroy the people of Israel after God had explicitly said that He would. He then further pressed and asked God to go up in the midst of the people after God had said that He wouldn’t, and God listened to Moses on both accounts. Nineveh repented and saw God’s mercy after He had proclaimed their destruction. Elijah prayed that it would not rain and it did not rain.

So no, God is not a genie in a bottle. But He does listen to the prayers of His people, and often He grants them. So what do you pray for? If the omnipotent God of the universe promises to listen to you and take your requests under advisement when making His plans, what do you ask Him for? One convicting question that I have been asked before is, “If God answered every prayer request you made over the last week, what would look different?”

So why don’t we ask for bigger things? If we really believed what the Bible says about prayer, we should pray often, and we should pray for big things. I can think of at least three reasons why we don’t ask God for big things. 

Guilt

The first reason we aren’t bold in prayer is because we are ashamed. We carry the guilt of our sin, and because of that guilt we are afraid to go to God with big requests. We may not be as bad as Adam, who hid from God because of His sin. But we sheepishly enter God’s throneroom, ask God for the bare minimum, and then quickly leave. We feel okay asking God for things that don’t feel like too much of a bother, but we don’t dare ask Him for big things. In some ways, we can be like children who know their parents are annoyed with them, and so they are careful not to ask for too much. 

Now, all of us sin. The solution to this problem is not to never sin and so never have guilt, because no one could do that. But our sin need not keep us from asking for big things, because our sin can be addressed. Jesus’ death and resurrection means that our sin is covered. We can enter with boldness rather than guilt, as Hebrews reminds us, because we have a great High Priest (Hebrews 4:15-16). Guilt is good, if guilt drives us to God for cleansing and forgiveness. If guilt causes us to avoid God or only ask for the bare minimum, we’ve misunderstood the purpose of our guilt. God wants us to be forgiven and cleansed of our sin, and then He wants us to ask for big things so that He can amaze us with what He can do. 

Apathy

Sometimes the problem is simply that we don’t care. We aren’t burdened by guilt, we simply are too busy with our lives to really think about what we should be asking God for. We are content with full bellies and a credit card balance paid off at the end of the month. Spiritually speaking we are satisfied if our families aren’t a disaster and church is going reasonably well. We don’t ask God for more because we don’t dare to dream big. And we don’t dare to dream big because we’re satisfied with uneventful lives. We want our basic needs met, along with a fair number of our wants, and no major crises. 

Now, it’s true that not every Christian is going to be a David Livingstone or an Adoniram Judson. We can’t all be heroes of the faith called to go away to foreign lands and suffer greatly for the gospel. God’s calling for most of us will be to live simple, normal lives that honor Him by being faithful to His Word. I don’t want to in any way imply that such a life is second-rate Christianity. 

But I do think that Christians living simple, normal lives should ask God for big things. They may be God’s instrument to do that, or God may find another instrument, but I think we should ask. I think we should pray for revival in our country. I think that we should pray that God would use our children for His kingdom in ways we can’t even imagine. I think we should pray for our communities, for our leaders, for our churches, and for our friends and family. I think we should pray for people to get saved, even if we can’t ever imagine them getting saved. Of course, this doesn’t mean that God will be obligated to answer all of these requests simply because we ask them. But as James reminds us, part of the reason we don’t have more is because we don’t ask for it. 

Doubt

Probably the biggest reason we don’t ask God for bigger things is because we don’t honestly think it will work. We may say all the right things about God. We might affirm God’s omnipotence, His love, His care, at least intellectually. But in our heart of hearts, we question some of those things. We wonder if God really could do this thing or that thing. We wonder if He really does care what I think. We remember times we asked God for something and didn’t get it, so we tell ourselves this won’t be any different. 

We might call this doubt, but the biblical word for it is unbelief. In the Sermon on the Mount Christ rebukes those who are anxious and worried about the food they will get with the phrase “you of little faith.” Often we don’t pray more because we honestly don’t believe what we say we believe about God. 

So what is your prayer life like? When is the last time you prayed for something thinking, “God, I don’t know how this would even be possible. But you can do it.” Do you ask God for big things? Things that if He says yes will change your life and the lives of people around you? Or are you guilty, apathetic, or filled with doubt? When it comes to asking God for things, it would be good for us to remember the powerful words we find at the end of Ephesians 3:

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21