“Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” – John 16:24

I think the great tragedy within the walk of Christianity today is that many people claim to ‘know God’ , but few truly know Him in a life changing way. Just as Christ told the woman at the well that if she knew who she spoke to she would have asked Him for water, if we truly know who God was, our very lives would be in humble submission and request before an awesome God.
Psalms 50:15 sheds a unique light on prayer that correlates so well with Christian Hedonism. David says “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me”. This screams Christian hedonism in the most overt and obvious ways. First, we have a need. It is a need that we have already attempted to fill by various measures of self-reliance, believing that we alone contain all the power, information and ability for change, how blatantly disrespectful to God our Father. This is clear sign of our faith, or lack there of, when we believe with all our heart that God has the power to save us yet he is entirely incapable or simply does not care to sanctify us that such an impossible feat is left to us as finite humans, how completely unbiblical and utterly ridiculous! Second, we have a promise, God promises to deliver us. It’s fool proof, call upon Him and He will deliver you! What the heck are we doing trying to live our lives, on our own in the good times and the bad! This is travesty upon the grace of God. Why? The end of the verse not only clarifies why children of God should call upon their Father, but also explicitly states our entire meaning in life. ‘…and thou shalt glorify me’…WOW…BAM…IN YOUR FACE! In case you didn’t catch all of that, let the late Charles Spurgeon expound on it. “He says, ‘You shall have the deliverance, but I must have the glory…’ Here is a delightful partnership: we obtain that which we so greatly need, and all that God getteth is the glory which is due unto his name.”
Did you catch that? We receive what we so desperately need when God receives what He so desperately demands! “We do not glorify God by providing His needs, but by praying that He would provide ours – and trusting Him to answer” - John Piper