Discipline is usually expected from God more than delight. And lessons to learn more than unapologetic joys. But this is a distorted view of our Father, who longs to give us better gifts than even our parents.
Jesus makes this point clear. If even sinful people know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will our heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
Certainly, we will not give our kids rocks to eat when bread is available. And we will do what we can to give them the best Christmas or birthday celebration possible, just because they’re our kids. If this is our natural desire with our finitude and many flaws, how much more will our infinite and perfect God seek to bring goodness and life to us?
Yet somehow our expectations are different. While we readily accept struggle and hardship as part of God’s refining journey for us, and rightly so, we’re less likely to accept, look for, or even ask for his good gifts. But this is not because God is holding out on us, he likes others better, or that this is just our lot in life. We can trace it back to our own faulty vision of who God is, which the teaching of Christ is seeking to correct.
We can boldly ask, seek, and knock for good things because our Father is good – he delights in us and rejoices over us with singing. What if we lived as if this were true? What would we then ask for in our work, marriage, friendships, or, like a kid on Christmas, just because? And how much of the good life have we missed out on because we’ve assumed our human parents are somehow more lavish than God our true Father?
God is a good God. How much more will you now ask him for good things?
