My birthday has crept upon me this year. In a few weeks I will celebrate my 45th. My kids have asked what I wanted for my birthday. In a funny way, I have no idea… I have become the father where his children lament, “What do you buy for a dad who has everything?” Oh, don’t get me wrong I still have lots of “wants” like may be a nice HDTV for the bedroom (but I only need a 24” one), an Apple iPad (but I only need a 16GB WiFi model), and the list goes on and on. It has been so long since a time when I “wanted” something and have to wait for someone else to give it to me I haven’t given a thought to asking for anything. In my own financial self-sufficiency I just go out and buy whatever it is I wanted… I mean, needed.
Now that I have to think about asking for a present for my birthday it spurred me into thinking about the time Jesus telling His disciples to ask their Heavenly Father for gifts. You may be familiar with the passage in Matthew 7:7-11 where we find the words of the Lord, “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 who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 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 what is good to those who ask Him!”
What most Christians will probably say the moral of the story being that even earthly fathers who are “evil” in a spiritual sense, i.e., are not followers of Christ will not withhold good gifts from his own children, how much more will God, being our good Heavenly Father will give to us better gifts than them. That is a great truth, but I believe here is the point that majority of us miss, or at least for me since I have never heard of it before until I read the book Radical by David Platt. What kind of gifts should I ask for?
To get a more complete picture of this illustration from Jesus, we need to take a look at the same passage from a different perspective, this time from Luke. In Luke 11:9-13 we find Luke giving us more clear insight about this gift we are to ask for, “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 who knocks, it will be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? 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?”
DO YOU SEE IT?!! (Okay, if you didn’t see the emphasis I added then you need to have your eyes checked.) If not, read these two passages again side-by-side.
As a typical Christian I have too low view and focus of things. I settle for the average, the typical. Oh I can try to be pious and attempt to have a high-view of God but in the end unless my aim is a little higher I will never rise out of my point of reference. We see the beauty (not to mention the greed) of “asking” and “receiving” for the gifts. There is an entire culture in American Christendom (there is a huge difference between that and the rest of the world as I found out, but that’s another blog for another day) based on heretical teaching of the “health and wealth” prosperity gospel. Without naming names let’s just say some of the most popular TV preachers are amongst these heretical teachers. The emphasis of this prosperity preaching is God loves you so much that He wants to give you gifts and to blessed you beyond your wildest dreams; but it is because of your lack of faith that you do not have a mansion to rest in or a Mercedes to drive in. The measure of your wealth and health is directly proportional to your faith. However, these are not the gifts Jesus told us to ask for.
While we are asking for comfort He is ready to give us the Comforter. While we are asking for morsels to satisfy our never-ending appetite He waiting for us to accept His invitation to His banquet. While we are mesmerized by shiny little trinkets He is ready to give us His vast inheritance. While we are asking for security He is ready to give us His promise of eternity. Beloved, we have been asking for gifts when He already promised to give us the Giver of all things, Himself.
“Why is He doing this?” was my first thought. Am I so special that God wants to bless me? Or if you are more pious than me you might exclaim, “God loves me so much that He gave Himself to me.” While that He loves so much is technically true but love was not His motive. So what is His motive for being such a generous giver?
The answer is found from another author with another insight. John the beloved disciple of Jesus wrote in John 14:12-14, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” AGAIN, DO YOU SEE IT?!!
So let me ask you (and myself included), “What are you asking for?” If it is in things and feelings that are only temporal, let me encourage you to aim a little higher… ask for the sky!
P.S. To my girls… since I don’t wear ties or dress up anymore, how about a nice t-shirt with your beautiful smiles on it? 😉
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