When Oliver Twist was nine or ten, he lived in a workhouse for paupers. Charles Dickens with ironic flair paints a terrible picture of living conditions in which the residents are slowly starved to death by penny pinching overseers.
One day, driven by hunger and the provocation of his fellow inmates, Oliver Twist finishes his bowl of gruel, and then stands before his caretakers and says, “Please, sir, I want some more.”
The response was predictably frightful, which was why, of course, neither Oliver nor anyone else had dared ask before.
The Scriptures can be read to suggest that these words of Oliver are perfectly appropriate when uttered before God. It is right to come before him and say, “Please, sir, I want some more.”
Why, I wonder, do my prayers lack that simple passion? Is it because to pray so appealingly is to somehow imply that God has heretofore been stingy with me? I have been well blessed in so many ways. Is that why I do not ask for more?
Perhaps I think that I don’t have worthy things to seek from him. But to ask for a deeper love for him, or for greater fruitfulness in ministry, or for more wisdom as a father and husband, these aren’t unworthy things.
I certainly hope that it is not because I view God as a begrudging, miserly distributor of daily bread.
So then, why don’t I – why don’t WE – take up again the notion that God is a loving heavenly father delighting to give good gifts to his children? There is no shame.
“Please, sir, I want some more.”