Number 24 in the series “God Rocks: 101 Amazing Everyday Gifts!” Stories and promises of the awesome blessings God gives us each day. I hope it encourages you today!
I see several misperceptions of God that keep people far away from him.
Photo Credit: Bradley Dean
First, obviously, believing he doesn’t exist or if he does he’s some impersonal life force that has no awareness of my existence. So really there’s little point in praying.
Second, believing perhaps he does exist but he’s way too busy with major world issues to be concerned about my day to day problems.
Third, if he exists he’s like an omnipotent traffic cop just waiting for me to screw up so he can slap me with a ticket. Frankly you just want to stay off his radar.
Fourth and I see this one in the church all the time. God sends trouble my way to test me so I can prove whether I’m really faithful. That one really irritates me.
The result is a whole lot of people just respond “Yea, no thanks.” And frankly I don’t blame them.
That’s exactly the false perception Jesus tried to correct.
He said, “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him?” (Matthew 7: 9-11 NLT)
So as God’s child when you simply ask for what you need you’ll see several things.
First, assurance. Think about yourself and your love for your children. Most of us no matter how imperfect I truly believe want good things for our children. How much more will God who loves us perfectly want to give us only good things?
Second, God as our father delights in giving gifts to his children. I remember watching our young children open gifts at Christmas. The delight on their faces was all the reward I needed. God delights in the same way.
Third, the gifts God gives aren’t always what we ask for. But they’re always perfect for what we need. When our children were little they might ask for something I knew wasn’t good for them. So I tried to fulfill their desires with what was perfect.
Fourth, God gives us perfect gifts even before or in spite of what we ask. It hinges on his love not our prayers.
God as our loving Father gives us perfect gifts just as we would to our children.
When have you seen God bring you that kind of perfect gift?
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