I have a confession to make. I am obsessed with cat videos.

Maybe you have seen them? If you haven’t, you don’t know what you’re missing!  These snippets of movies show cats attempting to jump onto a windowsill and missing, chasing their own tail, trying to catch bubbles floating on a computer screen, and cats just being their own curious selves.

These short videos make me smile and prick my heart to adopt another cat.  You see, I already have one cat and her name is Abigail.

Abigail’s temperament is typical of a Siamese cat; she is very vocal and has lots of attitude. She always seems to be “yelling” at me for food, to go out, or to come back inside.  Very rarely does she come to me to cuddle and this is something I want from a cat.

As these hysterical videos moved across my computer screen, I wrestled with the idea of adding another feline to our family.  Should I or shouldn’t I, that is the question.

Small and seemingly insignificant as it was, I finally decided to lay my request at the feet of my Father. I prayed, God, I would like to have another cat.  If it be Your will, would you please bless us with a kitten?  The prayer continued until I said, Amen.

My husband got up to get a drink and within seconds he returned to say, “Lin, you’re not going to believe this.  A small white kitten just ran across the back deck!”

After the initial shock wore off I screamed, “Why didn’t I ask for a million dollars?”

James 4:2b-3 (ESV)  You do not have, because you do not ask. 

Why am I surprised when God gives me what I ask for? Our Father in Heaven, Creator of the Universe who owns the cattle on a thousand hills wants to flood our store houses with His goodness.  I continually underestimate God’s willingness not only give me what I need but also to give me what I want.

All I have to do is to ask.

Matthew 7:7-11 (ESV) ⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? ¹¹ If you then, who are 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!

I cannot grasp that the Creator of the Universe cares about my every whim. God wants to rain down blessings upon me even though I am unworthy of these gifts.

Why do I continually forget this?

Truthfully, I don’t want a million dollars.  We never saw the kitten again and the pang of adopting a cat has passed.  My heartfelt desire is to know and respond to the will of my Father, for my faith to overflow into every aspect of my life, to do the work Jesus sets before me, and to have an unquenchable thirst to know Him more.

May I have the boldness to ask for it.

Linda Guteres

August 2016