For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:8)
Counterfeit Christian theology teaches that prayer is not about asking things, but it is about developing ourselves. This is what many pagan religions teach. It is because they have no God and they cannot expect to get anything. The Faithless are in fact culturally-Christian pagans. They adopt Christian culture but they cannot experience Christian reality, and so they must invent a theology to accommodate this.
On the other hand, Jesus taught that prayer is about getting things from God. Of course we develop ourselves when we pray, but this does not exclude constantly asking God for things. In fact, we develop ourselves by asking God for things, for in asking God for things, we exercise our faith and dependence on God.
And of course we fellowship with God when we pray, but this does not exclude constantly asking God for things. In fact, we fellowship with God by asking him for things, for in asking God for things, we acknowledge that he is God, that he is our Father, that he is able to do all things, and that he is the source of all gifts and miracles. How is that not fellowship? Do we fellowship with God only when we talk to him like a friend and pretend that he is not God? Or do we fellowship with God only when we praise him with our words, but then turn away from him to solve our problems and develop our plans by our own wisdom and effort? That is not fellowship, but arrogance and apostasy. A person who is in fellowship with God will constantly ask him for things.
Jesus placed a different emphasis on prayer than the faithless and the religious. Prayer is not only about developing ourselves or fellowship with God, but it is about getting things from God. And he placed no restrictions on what we ask. He never said that we cannot ask for physical and material things. He never said that we must only pray for other people. He never said that we can only pray about ministry or the kingdom of God, as if God needs us to pray for him.
Jesus knew the kinds of things that most of his hearers wanted. They were not professional religionists. Many of these people indeed cared about God, salvation, and spiritual things. But they would no less diligently ask for healing, prosperity, things that would make them happy and successful, and for God to solve their problems and improve their lives. Jesus knew this and still said, “Everyone who asks, receives.”
This was his teaching on prayer: “You ask, you get.” Who teaches this way today? Preachers warn people about abuse more than they teach about what Jesus said. But the things they call abuse are often the things that Jesus wanted the people to ask for. He did not need to investigate each individual before he made broad statements about prayer. He knew what they wanted and he told them to ask. He did not say that God will give them what they ask only if it is his will. And he made a point of insisting that God will not decide to give them something else, but that God will give them the very thing that they ask.
God is pleased when we ask him for things and get things from him. He is pleased when we pray for ourselves. He is pleased when we pray for our own success, healing, and prosperity. He is please when we pray for our happiness and our future. And of course, he is also pleased when we pray for other people, for their healing and prosperity, for their salvation and their ministry. When we ask God for things, we are treating him as God and as Father. When we ask God for things, we acknowledge that he is the one who makes things happen, that he is the source of our existence and happiness. And God will glorify himself by showing the world how he rescues and blesses his people.