Jesus was telling the people listening about how God answers the prayers of His people with the blessing most advantageous for that person.
He offered the example that if a child asked a parent for a fish, that parent wouldn’t hand the child a snake or if the child asked for an egg, the parent wouldn’t give a scorpion. He knew that loving parents would give the child the food that child needed, despite their own sinful nature.
That is our God. He gives us the gifts that are of ultimate advantage to us.
True story:
When Jack (my husband) had that near-fatal aneurysm in 2013, I begged God for his life. I prayed hard that my beloved would be safe and healed. I prayed as Jesus did, “Your will be done, O God” but He heard my heart’s relentless begging for my man’s healthy life.
The Creator healed my husband, using the hands of a surgeon, and most would never imagine that Jack laid that close to death’s door.
It was a couple years after that happened when, during a worship service at church, I felt it deep in my heart. It was the whisper of the Spirit telling me, “I didn’t heal him for him. He was on the way here to Me. I healed him for you, because I love you.” Let me tell you, I wept and had to sit down. My legs were not going to continue to hold me up!
Now, as I look at that event in the light of this scripture, I see where the saving of my husband’s life was advantageous for me and thus a gift the Lord gave me. Somehow in God’s will and plan, Jack has much yet to accomplish for the Kingdom and so didn’t get to enter Heaven back then.
Is that to say that those who beg God to heal someone and He doesn’t are those God doesn’t love? Nope. Not saying that at all. God is sovereign and He shows us His love for us in myriad ways.
The point is, when we ask God for something, we’re asking Him for a solution to this problem or that, and that is what He gives us. The solution we need for that situation. The solution that is most advantageous for us. It is important that we recognize that His “no” or “wait” are the right answers for our requests because they are the most advantageous for us.
Just like we give the best gifts for our children when they ask, God gives us the best gifts for us when we ask, and the very best Gift He has given in answer to all our requests is His presence within us. The Holy Spirit lives in those who have believed in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for their sins. God living in us. Wow!
Coffee, Bible, Journal.
