| “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” – Matthew 7:11 |
|---|
| God is ABLE and GOD is WILLING to Answer Our Prayers As Jesus teaches about prayer, He conveys a WILLINGNESS on the Father’s part to GIVE GOOD THINGS to those who ask. As we consider ASKING our Father in heaven for the various things we NEED, and let’s be honest, asking for things we WANT, there can be and most likely is a hesitation on our part to ASK. I suspect you have and may even now be experiencing this hesitation. What brings about this hesitation to ask? I think there are two reasons. First, this hesitation comes many times because of a lack of faith that GOD is ABLE to handle what we are facing. While we have read verses about nothing being impossible for God and read stories of God doing the impossible we look at our situation and think we finally have something GOD is UNABLE to handle. We hesitate to ask because we don’t believe God is ABLE. We need to overcome this lack of faith by growing our faith and knowing that GOD IS ABLE. Secondly, this hesitation to ask comes because there is a lack of knowledge regarding WHO God is and HIS WILLINGNESS to give us the things we ask of Him. Maybe we have had earthly experiences where our requests were ignored or rejected. We start telling ourselves there is no need to ask anymore because they don’t care or they just always say no. Sometimes our earthly experience with maybe a father or someone in authority will start defining our relationship with our Heavenly Father. We start thinking God is not interested in us. It is this mindset that Jesus wants to debunk. In the previous verses, He has told us to ASK. He said ASK, SEEK, and KNOCK. As we ask, we will receive. As we seek, we will find. As we knock, it will be open to us. These are His instructions to us as God’s children. We are to ASK. Knowing this is almost too good to believe Jesus gives an illustration of how an earthly father who is evil gives good gifts to his children, giving them bread rather than rocks and giving them fish rather than a serpent when they ask for something to eat. He then gives us our verse to DATE saying, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Please pay close attention to three words. HOW MUCH MORE! In comparison to an earthly father who gives good gifts, Jesus says HOW MUCH MORE will our heavenly Father give GOOD gifts? God is not just ABLE He is WILLING to give to His children GOOD THINGS when they ask! Now one more thing. Don’t miss that He is willing to give GOOD things. Not everything you ask for is GOOD FOR YOU! No is a legitimate answer to prayer! God is so good that He will not give us what is not good for us! Verse to DATE the Word on July 11 (7/11) is Matthew 7:11. It says, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Now ASK your Heavenly Father for the GOOD THINGS YOU NEED! Continue Strong, And remember to DATE the Word Prayer TIP: You may want to write the words GOD IS WILLING on an index card with Matthew 7:11! Let it remind you that GOD IS WILLING so you then will ASK. |