1. We must sincerely desire the things which we ask. If a child should ask his mother for a piece of bread, when she knew he was not hungry, but was only trifling with her, it would not he proper for her to give it.  Indeed, she would have just cause to punish him for mocking her.  And do we not often come to the throne of grace, when we do not really feel our perishing need of the things we ask?  God sees our hearts; and he is not only just in withholding the blessing we ask, but in chastising us for solemn trifling.

2. We must desire what we ask, that God may be glorified. “Ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”  We may possibly ask spiritual blessings for self-gratification; and when we do so, we have no reason to expect that God will bestow them upon us.

3. We must ask for things AGREEABLE TO THE WILL OF GOD.  “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.”  The things that we ask must be such, in kind, as he has indicated his willingness to bestow upon us.  Such are, spiritual blessings on our own souls; the supply of our necessary temporal wants; and the extension of his kingdom.  These are the kind of blessings that we are to ask; and the degree of confidence with which we are to look for an answer must be in proportion to the positiveness of the promises.  Our Lord assures us that our heavenly Father is more willing to give good things, and particularly his Holy Spirit, to them that ask him, than earthly parents are to give good gifts to their children; and he declares expressly, that our sanctification is agreeable to the will of God.  The promises of the daily supply of our necessary temporal wants are equally positive.  What, then, can be more odious in the sight of God, than for those who profess to be his children to excuse their want of spirituality on the ground of their dependence upon him?  And what more ungrateful, than to fret and worry themselves, lest they should come to want?  We may also pray for a revival of religion in a particular place, and for the conversion of particular individuals, with strong ground of confidence, because we know that God has willed the extension of Christ’s kingdom, and that the conversion of sinners is, in itself, agreeable to his will.  But we cannot certainly know that he intends to convert a particular individual, or revive his work in a particular place; nor can we be sure that the particular temporal blessing that we desire is what the Lord sees to be needful for our present necessities.