Daily Affirmations - Day 2 - Call to Me - Good Gifts For The Asking
- Alisa B.
- 11 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Day 2: Good gifts for the asking
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:9-11).
If any friend should write us a letter [with these words], “Call unto me, and I will answer you,” we should naturally understand... that whatever we might ask of our friend, he would most assuredly give us; and if he were a person in whose ability and kindness we had confidence, we... [would]... seek his aid.
If we were in debt, we should apply to him for financial help... if we were tried by sickness, we should [ask him for] medicines... if our friends had been ungrateful to us, we should most likely call upon him for sympathy; and if our spirits were distressed from some unknown cause, if we believed him to have immense wisdom, we should ask him for [help].
But how different is the case when we read these words as coming from the lips of God!... “Yes,” we say, “it is a very comforting doctrine, that God answers prayer...” But it remains a matter of doctrine, and not a matter of practice to [most of] us.
“O fools, and slow of heart to believe,” our Master might well say to us; and if He should come into our hearts, He would administer a thousand rebukes to us for our slackness in proving the truth of His promise.
For God means what He says and... intends that His words should stand good; and He wishes us to believe them... and therefore to prove our faith by acting upon them. Alas! the truth is... that the most of us... receive this doctrine because it is in the Bible, do not so receive it as to put it into practice.
We are sure to have our prayers answered, if it is right that they should be answered. Sometimes, even the Lord’s people ask for things which it would not be for God’s glory to give, nor for their profit to receive.
If you should tell your child you would give him anything he liked to ask for, you would not for a moment suppose that you included in the promise any absurd request he might make. Suppose he should ask you for [something harmful] would you fulfil your promise? Certainly not. You would say, “My child, I love you too well... I desire your good too much to grant your absurd request..."
God says the same: “‘Call upon Me, and I will answer you,’ but I will not always answer you as you wish to be answered. If you ask for a thing not fit for you to receive, I will give you something better... I will hear your prayers, but I will not give you exactly what you ask for; I will grant you something infinitely superior to the thing itself.”
~ C. H. Spurgeon, Things Unknown (Slightly Edited)
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