Believe In His Benevolence

“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Mt 7:11 AV)

 

There are times we find it hard to accept the above truth.  Particularly when we compare our failures against His grace.  But this is the whole point of our Savior’s words.  We don’t deserve, nor can we earn God’s grace.  Grace is bestowed despite our failure.  Grace is given for the express purpose of overcoming our sin.  If we never sinned, we wouldn’t need grace.  The above statement must be accepted by faith.  Regardless of who we are or what we have done, God’s grace is available and once communion is established by forgiveness, He wishes to give good things to those who ask.  The comparison is to human fathers who shower good things on their children despite their children’s behavior.  We don’t always do this.  But we do it a lot.  If we shower goods things and affection on our kids despite their behavior, how much more does a God of grace do the same for us?  If that is true, then prayers of faith should continue.  Not to keep us in our failures but despite them.  Not that we can be presumptuous.  God will not hear if we are.  Rather, with a humble honesty about our failures, we can still seek good things from God and He does reward us because of His love.

It takes a lot of wisdom to discern when a child needs a hug rather than correction.  Not all misbehavior is worthy of a spanking.  Some misbehavior is the fault of a parent.  Or, unavoidable.  When parents overtax their children’s endurance and the child gets cranky and misbehaves, he doesn’t need a correction.  He needs a nap.  If a parent unnecessarily frustrates his child by placing unrealistic expectations on him and then corrects him when he fails. There are other times when correction is deserved, and in most cases appropriate, when good things might be the better choice.  Not that mom or dad wants to reward bad behavior.  There must be an understanding that bad behavior will not be tolerated.  But every once in a while, showering good is the right thing to do.  It takes a tremendous amount of love to pick up a child who might be throwing a tantrum and hug him until he stops.  It takes the patience of Job to love on a child who is constantly biting your ankles.  It takes the undying love of a parent to treat his child to an ice cream cone when he just blurted out, “Daddy, I hate you.”  But this is what God does.  And even more.

The point of our Savior’s words is to encourage us to ask in faith.  We are encouraged to believe that even though we do not deserve the goodness of God, He does give it freely.  When we doubt the grace of God, we cease to ask.  When we allow our self-loathing and condemnation to convince us that God’s grace is beyond reach, then we will not seek it.  Some of us are like the father who asked for the healing of his son.  We believe.  But our unbelief is more potent.  We believe God can do anything.  Except, that is, anything for us.  We simply do not wish to believe there could be anything the LORD would love in the likes of us.  We are deplorable.  We are unforgivable.  We are not worth the dirt that makes us our bodies.  Why would God love such a person as us?  We go to prayer and ask because it is the only thing we can do.  We ask all the while not truly believing God will give good things.  This is to what Jesus is directly addressing.  If we are to gain anything from God, we must not only seek His grace, but we have to believe in it!