“If you then, though
you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will
your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Luke
11:13.
Bruce and I are so incredibly fortunate to have been placed
in the amazing families we were. Both
his parents and my parents have always shown complete love, support and
provision when needed. Even as a married
couple, there were times life required us to go to them for financial and
emotional support. We went to them in complete
confidence of their faithfulness for guidance and encouragement … to listen and
share their wisdom…to ask and then receive.
While thankfully my mother is still alive, the other three parents have
gone to glory. There are certainly times
when their absence is more greatly felt than other times. All of us feel that void when circumstances
arise and the first thing we do is to pick up the phone to gnaw on it with your
loved one. But then we remember…
As much as our parents desired/desire to be there for us and
share everything they have we have a Father in heaven who desires even more. His storehouse bursts at the seams with love
to lavish on us. His wisdom and knowledge
is ours for the asking. Everything He
has He offers…everything He owns He shares.
He gave His son for each of us so why would we think He would withhold
anything good from us? The Bible states
in Ephesians 1:3 that ‘God has given us
every spiritual blessing in Christ’… 2 Peter 1:3-4 shares that ‘His divine power has given us everything we
need…and that through his own glory and goodness he has given us his very great
and precious promises so that we may participate in the divine nature.’ These are things we pray for as if we have
not yet received them. The truth of the
matter is we are walking in the blessings daily which we are praying for
nightly. We have already received
everything in Christ. God tells us that
once we ask for the Holy Spirit to take up residence in us we possess the
ability to access the fullness of God.
I remember a while back a preacher told me that the more He
understood God the less he prayed for himself.
I was taken aback because I know that God instructs us to pray ‘in
everything’ and I am a huge proponent of God being in the details. But I think that my friend was speaking more
of understanding that the majority of what we pray for has already been
beautifully sprinkled around our lives.
We take things to God hoping to receive when it is already done in
God. Just as we laid out our children’s
days when they were dependent on us, God has our days laid out with blessings
and provisions. That is what having a
child-like faith seems like to me…rising is the morning fully anticipating breakfast
already on the table from our Father and walking out His plan for our day. ‘Because
of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can pray with confidence as deeply loved and
highly favored children of God who’ve been urged to ask. We do not know what the direction will be,
but we know our Father will give it. We do not know what the provision will be,
but we know our Father will make it…Nothing is more appropriate than going to
God to get what we lack. But, oh the
relief of realizing what bounty He’s already spread before us on the banquet
table.’ Children of the Day, Beth Moore, p. 193.
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