“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
Matthew 7:11 NKJV
“But Mom likes to do good things for us,” I overhear my daughter say to her big brother who was trying to convince her not to bother me. My poor son; he was born to a much younger and inexperienced mother. His mother was parenting out of stress and exhaustion, not aware of the unspoken messages she was giving to him. He got the message that his needs were too much, and his requests would stress his mother out. His best survival strategy, then, was to not ask for things. He’s still this way. My son, who asks so little, notices when his other siblings get so much more than he does because they ask.
When I realized that my kids were going without things their little hearts desired because they were hesitant to ask for them, I was heartbroken. I began telling them that I wanted to hear their desires because I LOVE to do good things for them. I noticed how my stress at their expressed needs affected them negatively and separated them from me. My two younger children are much better at giving me opportunities to delight in doing good for them now, but the lie I unconsciously told my older two kids about their needs and desires has penetrated deep, and it takes a lot more conscious proactive work on my part to get those out of them. My younger kids live with a much more generous view of their parents and by extension the world. But my son especially still lives in a world of scarcity.
He Desires to Delight Us
Christ tells us, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” My kids will not understand, until they have their own children, how strong the desire is to meet every need and delight their little worlds with good things. When I look at the world my Father made for me, I recognize a parent’s delight in pouring out generous gifts and surprises. How often, when He was designing a beautiful flower or an argumentative squirrel, did He think, I can’t wait to see their delight at this one? Our Father’s world declares His glory and His generous nature.
The good gifts of the natural world are given commonly to all men, testifying to the generosity and goodness of the Creator, and condemning the blasphemy and ungratefulness of those who live as if their lives are their own. Christ said, “ All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. .” (John 6:37-39 NKJV)
If we come to Christ, we have been given to Him.
When we are united to Him by faith, we are covered by His blood and God declares us a son in whom He is well pleased. What a glorious comfort! If we are Christ’s, then we cannot be lost. And we can be certain that He loves us and is doing good for us. If we are Christ’s, then we have the heart of His Father and can come as children confident that He loves to give us good things. My son, who hesitates to ask for his desires, deprives us of the joy of meeting his heart’s desires because he doesn’t ask. James tells us that we have not because we ask not. The Psalmist tells us to delight in the Lord, and He will give us the desires of our heart. I, fallen and far from what I will be one day, am trying to reprogram the messages my son believes about his father and me. It is his work to believe us and act in that truth.
Cultivating delight in the Lord, believing what He says about Himself, that He is good, generous, and wants us close to Him is our work as children of the Most High. He is willing to do good for us, being a faithful Father; and He has the ability, being Almighty God. Never does he turn toward us in exhaustion and irritation. He has given us His Son. What good thing will He withhold?
Our Father likes to do good things for us! May we learn more and more to ask out of the abundance that flows from His heart.
