“Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You – Ask What You Can Do For Your Country.”

“Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘If you will walk in My ways, and if you will perform My service, then you will also govern My house and also have charge of My courts, and I will grant you free access among these who are standing here.’” Zechariah 3:7


In a season of political conflict both at home and abroad, we should remember something said in another time of national and international tension. “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” John Kennedy, who spoke these words at his 1961 presidential inauguration, was a Democrat, but these historic words were inspirational to Democrats, Republicans and everyone else. They were words of selflessness spoken to an increasingly selfish culture - words of giving and serving spoken into a culture too focused on getting and then getting away.

We still need to hear those words today. Christians need to hear them more than anyone. They apply to our patriotism, but they apply even more to our faith. We ask God for things all the time. “God, please get me out of this jam!” “God, please bring down these absurd gas prices!” “God, please heal my friend.” God wants us to ask Him. The Bible encourages: “Ask and it will be given to you.” (Matthew 7:7) The Bible admonishes: “You do not have because you do not ask.” (James 4:2) For a Christian, asking God means a child is asking their Father, and our heavenly Father loves to give to His children. (Matthew 7:11)

So why do we experience so many occasions when God doesn’t give us what we ask? Why can’t we tap into the fullness of Christ’s promise: “My Father will give you whatever you ask in my name”? (John 16:23) What many fail to understand is while God’s love is absolutely unconditional, God’s promises are conditional. In order to receive everything we ask of God in prayer, Jesus imposes these conditions:

(1) “Have faith in God…do not doubt in your heart but believe what you are saying will happen.” (Mark 11:22-24; Matthew 21:22)

(2) “Have faith in me and do what I have been doing.” (John 14:12-14)

(3) “Remain in me by obeying my commandment to love one another as I have loved you, and by bearing fruit that will last.” (John 15:7-16)

These conditions can be summarized in a single sentence: When you are doing what God asks of you, then God will do whatever you ask of Him.

You see, God’s offer is actually much better than what President Kennedy offered. God wants us to ask Him for things. But He doesn’t want the cart before the horse. First He wants us to ask what we can do for Him, and do it. It is His kingdom that needs to come on the earth, not ours! And at least in general terms the Lord has already said what He wants us to do. Believe in Him. Trust Him and everything He says. Live out that trust by obeying His command to love and serve. You can ask God for anything that will empower that kind of life, which means you can love and serve in His power, not just your own. (Zechariah 4:6)

I see many Christians who are so faithful. They love unconditionally and serve sacrificially. But their faith is smaller than their faithfulness. They have not been taught to believe in the manifestations of God’s power – miracles, healings, and extraordinary answers to prayer. So they do good, but not nearly as much good as they could do.

I see other Christians with great faith in God’s readiness to perform awesome supernatural works. They pray boldly. But often their faithfulness is smaller than their faith. Their teaching has focused on their own experiences and prosperity – what they can get more than what they can give. Some think faith in God means faith in whatever prayer they are praying (“name it and claim it”) when faith in God really means praying what God wants you to pray. So they see manifestations of God’s power, but not nearly what they could see.

Zechariah 3: 7 prophetically says if we live like Jesus and serve His purposes, then we will receive all the power, authority and heavenly help we ask for. This brings great faithfulness and great faith together, which is the way it should be. “Faith” and “faithfulness” are, after all, a single word, not different words, in the biblical languages of Greek and Hebrew. They need to be one word in our lives as well. So ask God what you can do for His Kingdom, and then ask for all He can do for you.