You can have anything you want

As I began the school year some mitigation funds became available for my brand new classroom and the whole special education department. The request was there was a lot of money, we needed to spend it and it wasn’t going to happen again so we could ask for whatever we wanted.

So I did. I asked for over 110,000 worth of stuff.

Then word came that there were limits, things we couldn’t get, furniture couldn’t be purchased, there wasn’t that much money, it had to meet their needs

The next time a request came out to give ideas to spend money, to request items for the district to purchase some teachers didn’t want to ask. They didn’t want to waste their time or get their hopes up.

What stops us from asking?

This is Autism Awareness month, one thing some don’t realize is that my autism friends that don’t talk still have desires. They have things they want. But they don’t know how to say, “I want.” But they do know how to get what they want.

If a child pulls you by the arm, leads you over, and starts climbing to something you know what they want.

If they start crying in front of a toy they can’t access you know what they really want. Sadly at times, like most children, they do not know what they want, if they start a tantrum for no apparent reason they might be tired or hungry.

We have a saying

Behavior is communication

I once knew a person who hated doing hard academic work, so they would hit someone. You punch a person and what would happen. They would take this person away. Guess what, no more work.

I once knew a person who had an affair. They were so overwhelmed by the positive treatment by the person trying to seduce them as well as the demands of keeping it all secret. They wanted happiness, joy, to be valued, and the energy to life. But at the time they were unable to clearly they know they mattered on their own, they were desired but never asked their marriage partner to show the desire in the ways they appreciated. Thy never asking to do productive exciting things, and never expressing exactly what they wanted to the person they married who committed to. They bought into the lie that romance is having not to ask, that the other person is just a mind reader. They didn’t realize that asking is just as romantic, and more productive and loving and worth it than then giving in to immorally betraying someone to someone who figured out manipulative techniques.

These aren’t the only reasons people have affairs. There are many, but I bet in the majority you get to a person asking for something they don’t know how to ask for.

From an adult who committs horrible acts to a small child screaming next to a cautioned off playground we all have thinks we want. That we are afraid or don’t know how to ask for.

My little ones at work can’t vocalize their speech. So that’s what I have to teach - How to say “I want”, “Help”. You can pray for my little ones that they learn how to ask.

Today my prayer is also for you, that you will know how to ask, who to ask, and see that asking get responded to, of the one who can actually answer.

Today I ask you - what is making you mad, sad, frustrated, worried, concerned, what are your desires,

what do you want?

This is the first question we ask when a student’s totally having a behavior I ask them and try to help them figure out, “what do you want.”

You know what, Jesus says the same thing. He says we need to do ask ourselves

the exact same question

Luke 11:9–13 CSB

9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

Ask and it will be given to you, Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open to you.

These are the phrases of Jesus that we are not only going to look at but I am going to invite you to put in practice in your life over the next couple of weeks. We are looking forward to Mother’s Day when you will report on the answers to prayer that God will give you.

Because God is already answering prayer.

Fernando is an answer to prayer.

Being in this building is an answer to many of your prayers.

Seeing each other and getting out and about is an answer to prayer.

There are so many answers to our prayer around that I wonder why we are not asking for even more.

Jesus told us

Ask and it will be given to you

For everyone who asks receives

Why don’t you ask of God? Do you know what you want?

This isn’t as simple as it sounds. You might be mad, sad, frustrated, worried, concerned, a little fearful, but if someone who could answer you asked what do you want could you give an answer?

Like I said earlier I had a kiddo recently who was crying to go home at about 10 o’clock in the day. We went home at 12:10. Beginning next week we will go home at 2:30 so keep me in prayer that my students cope well and the class keeps learning. He wanted his mom. He wanted to go home he was crying, pushing, kicking, just really wanted something but didn’t know how to comfort himself. It’s autism acceptance month and I want you to learn that he will learn how to deal with the pain of not going home when he wants just like you did.

But do you know what you want? We see people in addictions trying to rid themselves of something or cover something up. We feel all this negativity, what would get rid of it? People all over the world claiming they have ways to fix problems some hard, some expensive, some illegal

We are not much different from my little autistic friend. Because he doesn’t know how to deal with frustration he also sometimes forgets what he actually wants.

Have you forgotten what you want?

I know he doesn’t know what he wants because just 2 hours later when it was time to go home, he didn’t want to leave. We tried to guide him out and he wouldn’t go. two hours prior he was crying mom, now he was crying again and when we asked him what he wanted he would guide us for a little bit to the nothing. He forgot what he wanted.

Before we go thinking we know better ask yourself what I asked you earlier, what do you really want.

You might be saying, I want people to respect me! I want what’s mine. I want to be better. I want to be loved!

Why? What will what you want do for you?

Sometimes I get so mad at my bosses? Do they know how hard this job is. Do they know what I’m going through. And then I start and think, if they answer to that is yes, what changes? My boss knows how hard it is for me. My wife knows what I like. My kids do know what to do. Am I still upset? Am I still frustrated. Probably. Because I am upset by having to work hard. Or I am upset that the situation did not change. Or what I really want is appreciation but I don’t just want a thank you card, I want a raise, or I want other employees to listen to me like I am a wise person. You see I am now realizing I want money or I want admiration.

Is what you say you want really what you want?

My point is there is often something behind what we are really asking, and by really thinking through what we are asking, by really search for our answer of what we want, there is great power in knowing what we want to ask.

Jesus said the most interesting thing to a man who was so disabled that he would come to a pool in Jerusalem hoping for a miracle cure.

John 5:1–7 CSB

1 After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Aramaic, which has five colonnades. 3 Within these lay a large number of the disabled—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the disabled man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”

Do you want to get well.

Do you notice the man doesn’t answer the question. He tells Jesus about what his problem is. He tells Jesus why his solution isn’t working. Jesus didn’t ask about his solution, he asked about what he really wanted.

The man’s solution was to find someone to push him in water when it stirred. Jesus question was, do you want to get well.

We will learn about ourselves, see what God has for us already, and make better requests. When we really focus on that question that is necessary when we want to ask of God, you have to ask yourself, what do you want.

Are you asking for Jesus to work your solution or will you just ask what you really want?

Do you really want a million dollars?

yes, I really, really want a million dollars you might say. Why? Is my response.

I have some cash right now that I have not yet put in the bank. You know what, it looks just like all the other paper on my table. Sometimes when working in a classroom and handing a student a toy or some food when they do a good job, people will say they only work for food or toys. I answer, “you only work for money.” But why? Is green paper better than white paper? No.

Because money gets you stuff like homes, food, etc, etc.

It also can reduce anxiety like how are you going to make rent this month, what are you going to do when you need an in home nurse.

So you really don’t want money, you want to remove the worry and anxiety. Or you want the stuff. You want the stuff because it brings happiness to use it.

What if you asked the Lord to take care of your problems like reducing your anxiety over your financial future?

Don’t get me wrong, we don’t do nothing, we don’t just sit there and go, ok I prayed now let me play on my phone.We use our brains and continue in what we knew God wants us to do like go to work. We will discuss all of the next steps in the weeks to come.

But it’s important to understand.

We do NOT believe the Lord helps those who help themselves

we just recognize that part of the Lord’s answer might be us continuing to work the job that pays us.

Let me give you an example out of my own life. I have shared with you that I needed aids to help in my classroom. We call them para-professionals. I haven’t had any for the whole year, until just a few weeks ago. I had to distance teaching on my own. No one in my classroom to help me, no one to make all those materials or give me work time to figure out how to communicate with students who can’t speak online

As soon as I began I let all my superiors know I needed help. I reminded them. I even tried recruiting people to apply. I kept praying

We interviewed someone, not a great candidate but I was willing to take the first who came along. The Lord gave me advisors who said wait. I did. And I went more time without help.

Sometimes we have to wait for the Lord’s answer and not just take the first possible solution.

My principal asked if we would take student teachers … I was like a body that can help me, yes!

a brief time with a Student teacher

Months ago, we finally interview people, fell through

One week before spring break a sub shows up

Get told students are coming back when we return, just like that and I don’t have enough people

Over the break just days before we come back I get handed two new students

One of them comes with a 1 to 1 aide.

This 1:1 aide shows up and she is amazing.

And then on April Fool’s Day another para is sent to my class. And she is so kind.

On Friday, my principal interviewed the 1:1 to become a permanent para in my classroom and this wonderful person began filling my phone with texts of ideas we could do for our classroom.

I kept praying for aides and as I sought the aides I learned that God was answering my real request, to have everything I needed to do my job well and to have people that would help and not hinder me. i had everything i needed the entire time.

I didn’t ask it right but I still saw God deliver and I see that God was with me then and is with me now.

Did you know that God desires us to ask but even if we don’t ask it right, God will gives us the right answer?

Two reasons first God tells us that He gives us the words to say when we can’t say them

Romans 8:26 The Message

26 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.

Like my student who can’t figure out how to express what they want, but because I’ve had kids, older and wiser I can figure out what they are trying to tell me. God can figure you out, because He is much wiser than me or any of us.

Also once God figures out what we are praying for He is not going to fail us or ruin us.

Have you ever heard someone say don’t pray for patience because then God is going to give you a bunch of stuff you will have to be patient about, like God is some kind of horrible genie jerk, who waits for us to slip up on a request to prove our own stupidity?

Jesus tells us

Luke 11:11–13 CSB

11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

Want to feel smart? In ancient times of the Bible the too biggest animal symbols of evil were the snake and the scorpion. Why evil? Think about this - the venom could kill, disable, or just plain hurt you. And these animals don’t announce themselves. In the desert you move a rock with your hand or a foot and bam, stung by a scorpion or bit by a snake that was under that rock. Random death or pain. Surprising. Horrible.

So even though a scorpion in Isreal is about the size of an egg no good father would give their child a scorpion, if they asked for eggs.

God will answer your prayers in their due time, and sometimes his most perfect answer is no or not yet or I’m going to give you what you are really asking. But his answer will always be good. God will always love you.

So what do you get by asking God for what you want?

I got to see that God did provide all my needs this year and I can recognize that I am ready for his further blessing. That even though the next task seems really, really hard He will get me through.

You’ll get to see His real will for you, how He has already provided for, and the person who can really do something about your stuff.

With all the things you wrote down, as you submit these to God, God will answer you.

God hears your requests. That by asking you can recognize what your real request is. This will lead you to how to get those requests, how God answers those requests, and how God will deliver on everything he has told you he will do.

Which is our next topic for next week. Seeking to find.

In the mean time, let us ask of God what we will want.