The Verse of the Day

-June 13, 2020-

Good morning, happy Saturday,

-Our Heavenly Father Freely Gives Us The Best Gifts-

“If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

(Luke 11:11-13).

Soon, a week from tomorrow, we will celebrate Father’s Day. Jesus shows in this portion just how great the Father’s love is for us His children. He gives us so many good gifts and blessings. He shows that if earthly fathers know to give appropriate and generous gifts to their children, so God our Father does even more for us.

Jesus uses three different scenarios of sons asking their fathers for needed things: bread, a fish, and an egg. No human father would substitute a stone, a serpent, or a scorpion instead. It would be untenable and unconscionable. If human fathers give appropriately, freely, and generously, how much more will God do for us His children.

Jesus had just said in Luke 11:9-10, “So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him to knocks it will be opened to him.” God wants us to pray and He promises to answer us. We continue to cry out to God day and night for our beloved brother Jim who is in the ICU with the Coronavirus.

Our Savior also told us in Matthew 21:22, “And whatever things you ask in prayer believing, you will receive.” Our heavenly Father loves us, knows our needs, cares for us, and provides for us. The hymn writer said, “All you may need He will provide, God will take care of you; Nothing you ask will be denied, God will take of you. God will take care of you, through every day, o’er all the way; He will take care of you, God will take care of you.”

Notice here how God gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. James shows how gracious and generous our heavenly Father is in James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

No human father, as great as he may be, can compare to our heavenly Father. Our Father has far more, gives far more, to far more, for far longer. We thank God so much for our human fathers but even more for our heavenly Father.

Have a blessed day considering all that our heavenly Father gives us and thanking Him for everything. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean