Does God always give us what we want? That depends.

Does God always give us what we want? The first version of this had a slightly shorter title. Someone asked, after reading it, whether the answer was yes or no. This time, I’ll give the answer away right upfront. It’s right there in the title. It depends. This means, therefore, the answer is no! Without even getting into the condition(s) upon which “it depends”, the answer must be no, since there is, in fact, at least one condition. Let’s find out about that condition.

Does God always give us what we want?  There are certainly those who say the answer is yes.  Especially if we have enough faith.  I got an email the other day with this passage from the Bible:  

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. 

That sounds like God will always give us what we want – doesn’t it?  The thing is – that email came from biblegateway.com.  Surely, this isn’t what they meant to say – is it?

Is God really the ultimate gift dispenser – giving us our every desire?

Or is something missing?