July 21 Devotion

[Pastor Joelle]

For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and
for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone
among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake
instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a
scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to
your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy
Spirit to those who ask him!" Luke 11:10-13

“Everyone who asks receives’ Jesus promises when he talks about
prayer. Yea but I don’t get everything I ask for!
We read the bible selectively. We read “everyone who asks receives”
and then we stop there. Everyone who asks receives. We receive good
gifts from the Father. It’s really good news that we don’t get
everything we ask for because we don’t know what we are asking or what
we really need. I remember reading devotion by a woman who talked
about how she had a doll as a child she loved and she would pray that
it would turn into a real baby because as child she thought she really
wanted a baby. Can you imagine what a disaster it would have been had
her prayer been answered? But as a child she had no way of knowing
that she did not need a baby! We are like the little girl who thinks
she wants a baby and cannot understand why we can’t have a baby or why
the baby would be a very bad idea.

The good news is that God does not give us everything we ask for.
That doesn’t always feel like good news. But we need to trust that
God loves us and gives us good things. Even if we don’t ask for them,
know that we need them or even appreciate them.

Our Father in heaven, give us the good things you see we need and not
the silly things we ask for. Amen.