Matthew 20:32

The Lord Jesus took this very approach with God when He said, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me” (John 17:24). Joshua used it during the moment of his greatest victory, when he lifted his spear toward the setting sun and cried aloud, “Sun, stand still” (Joshua 10:12). Elijah employed it when he stopped the rain from heaven and started it again after three and a half years. Martin Luther followed it when, kneeling by his dying colleague, Philipp Melanchthon, he forbid death to take its victim.

This is a wonderful relationship that God invites us to enter. We are certainly familiar with passages of Scripture like the one that follows the above verse: “My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts” (Isaiah 45:12). But knowing that God invites us to command Him to act reveals a surprising change in our normal relationship!

Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.—Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.—What will ye that I shall do unto you? They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.

If ye . . . being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?—I will put my Spirit within you. Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of.

There are many healthy aspects to Jacob’s prayer. In some respects it could serve as a mold into which we pour our own spirits while we are being melted in the fiery furnace of sorrow.

Jacob began by quoting God’s promise twice and by saying, “Who said to me” and “You have said” (v. 12). See how he has God in his grasp! God places Himself within our reach through His promises, and when we can actually say to Him, “You have said,” He cannot say no. God must do as He has said.