Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Romans 9-10
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Matthew 7:9-11
Jesus: Think of it this way: if your son asked you for bread, would you give him a stone? Of course not—you would give him a loaf of bread. If your son asked for a fish, would you give him a snake? No, to be sure, you would give him a fish—the best fish you could find. So if you, who are sinful, know how to give your children good gifts, how much more so does your Father in heaven, who is perfect, know how to give great gifts to His children!
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
So, can we couple today’s thoughts with what Jesus said yesterday and make a case for cosmic Santa? Yesterday, we highlighted “ask and it will be given to you.” Now Jesus talks about the good gifts God gives. Is this a case for the name it and claim me gospel? Can we stand on this and just ask for a new car or a better job? Can we get that bigger house from God or a new wardrobe?
The answer is no. God is not sitting in heaven waiting to grant our every selfish desire. Let’s go back to the premise of Jesus’ comments on prayer here. We are seeking after God. We are seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We are asking for His will to be done on earth as it is being done in heaven. We are requesting the Father’s power to manifest itself through us in our activities in the same way He manifests His will through the angels that do His bidding around the throne room of heaven.
So when we ask for these things. When we ask for our daily bread, will God give us calamity? Will God give us illness? Will God give us tornados and floods and hurricanes? No. Jesus is bashing the idea prevelant among many of the day that God poured out terrible things on people. Many saw God the same way the Romans and Greeks saw their gods. Heavenly beings just playing with the lives of humanity. The God of creation is not like the false gods of the heathens surrounding the faithful Hebrews.
Jesus makes the case that God answers prayer and He answers with good gifts. When God’s children ask for things, God responds with the right gift that will benefit His children. He will give the right answer at the right time that will bring glory to Him and move His children along the path toward eternity with Him. Jesus puts the teaching in terms those around Him will clearly understand, though.
Remember, He is talking about a new covenant with God’s people. He is turning the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees upside-down. Jesus’ teachings rebel against the status quo telling these religious leaders they are not good enough to enter heaven. All their pious prayers, they magnanomous offerings, their boisterous religious pageantry means nothing to God. It’s all so much whitewash for other people to see, but it means nothing to God because He sees their heart.
What God wants is our recognition that He is God. He wants our honor, respect, and obedience. He wants us to say yes to His will. He wants us to accept the gifts He has for us and to use those gifts to carry out His will on earth, not ours. He wants to us forget about our desires are focus on His. God wants us to abandon our selfish ambitions and seek His kingdom and His righteousness. You see, we can never be good enough, but we can accept His goodness as our own through faith. That’s what Abraham did without the written law. That’s what Moses did before the law was given to Him on tablets of stone. That’s what Joel talked about when He said God would write His law on the hearts of men and women.
Jesus told the crowd that day, every good thing comes from God. Don’t blame Him for the bad that comes into your life. The bad things that happen are sometimes a consequence of your own sinful behavior. If you take drugs, they will destroy your body. It’s a natural consequence of your own actions. If you have affairs, it will destroy your family. That’s a natural consequence of your decision. Don’t blame God when you can’t fix your marriage. It’s a natural consequence of the destruction of trust between you and your spouse. Your relationship is gone and building that trust back will forever be an uphill battle for you.
If you’re the victim of a flood or tornado, it’s not God’s fault. Things just happen. Life isn’t fair. Rain falls on the just and the unjust. The physics of weather patterns were set in motions when God created the earth. You decide to live in a flood plain and the river overflows. Can you blame that on God? I don’t think so. Things just happen. Every good gift comes from God. Sometimes He will protect us from our own stupid decisions. Sometimes He doesn’t. He lets us suffer the natural consequences that come from those decisions.
But one thing is certain. When we ask our Father for something in prayer, we can be sure He answers. And when He answers, His answer is good. It might not be what we want, but it will be good. Because the Father gives good gifts to His children.
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