A Gooood Father

A Gooood Father.  Matthew 7.7-11

Why pray?  Because God answers our prayers.

Beautiful San Francisco Bay.  Notice the wake thrown by the boat in the middle of the picture.¹ Imagine the boat represents your life; and the wake the various things that have happened over the years. Clearly, this might represent a lot, but today the focus is narrow—answered prayer.  Stop and consider how many prayers offered by you or even for you that God has answered.  Seriously—stop and think.  I’m afraid that we forget so much.

But God wants us to remember and to continue to tell the stories, the miraculous, the merciful that has been wrought by his gracious thoughts toward us in answer to our prayers.  One of my favorite Old Testament stories is the scene where Joshua had the people gather memorial stones to mark God’s hand of protection, to set as monuments to tell future generations of his faithfulness².  Love that.  When we talk about God’s provision—how he has shown up—how he has sustained us, it builds others’ faith, and rekindles our own. 

You see, God promises that he hears and answers our prayers, but he is desirous that we seek him, and we do so in earnest.  So Jesus says,

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; 

           knock, and it shall be opened unto you ~ 

That is how I memorized it--from what my mama called the one true Bible—the one Jesus used, the King James Version.  Love my mother, but the King James was not published until 1611, and it was in English!  The New Testament was written in Greek, and Jesus spoke Aramaic; so much for the King James being the one and only true Bible!  Nonetheless, Jesus’ invitation to pray is so compelling, is it not?

Another translation of Matthew 7:7~ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” NIV

In reality the Greek verbs Jesus used—ask, seek, knock—were in the present imperative forms, which means Jesus was telling us to keep on doing these things.  Take a look:  “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

“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. NLT

How I love this passage!  First, I love it because it shows the heart of our God, our loving Heavenly Father, who longs to give us good gifts.  Because I have four children and two grandsons for whom I would give my life, I can relate to Jesus’ point here.   Of course, I want to give them good gifts; I want nothing but good things for them.  But I hear Jesus saying, ‘Ah come on, Girl, you think you want to give them good things?  You don’t know the half of what I want to give them!’  And that is my second reason for loving this passage:  Jesus’ teaching promises that God answers prayers.  We pray…God hears, and he answers.  He answers because he is our gooood Father. 

1 – I took this picture two months ago from the Golden Gate Bridge; if you look closely, you can see the Bay Bridge in the picture.

2 – Joshua 4

3 – Matthew 7.7-11, NLT