The answer to
both is obvious. A father who loves his child, even though he may not have the
resources to give the actual request, will not give in its place something
useless (a stone) or something harmful (a snake). The parent will give what she
or he determines is best to give. "How much more will your Father in heaven,"
says Jesus, "give good gifts to those who ask Him!" The language of this statement
is the language of intimacy.
Do you have the
same struggle I have with petitioning God on my own behalf? With regard to
prayer, I am much more likely to ask for myself first then for others. I feel
rather like John Killinger when he wrote of the hospitality with which he was
received into a friend's house: "They received me into their lovely house, which the
wife had labored all day to clean for my arrival. They ushered me into the most
comfortable bedroom, where their own clothes had been removed from the closet to
make room for mine. They set before me a sumptuous meal, served on their finest
china and with their best silver. They give me an evening of devoted attention
before a roaring fire in the sanctity of their family parlor. And then, when it
is time to bid good night and retire to our beds, they say, 'Now, if you need
anything, just ask.' What could I possibly need? Some toothpaste,
perhaps? A paper handkerchief? A call in the morning? Trifles, all.
Bagatelles. Mere nothings. Of course I shall have what I need. What is that
compared with what they have already given?" - John Killinger, "Bread for
the Wilderness, Wine for the Journey" page 35.)
Indeed, with so
much already, who are we to ask for more? We are God's children, and children
are never bashful to ask for what their parents have to give. What then does our
heavenly Father have to give? "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
the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" (Luke
11:13). God's gift to us is not in the realm of things, but
in the sphere of the Person. The Holy Spirit, the personal presence and power
of God within and between, is first, last, and always God's gift in response to
our asking, seeking, and knocking. At issue is not the gift which God has to
give, but our openness to receive what God has to give.
Barbara Brokhoff
tells about a cab driver who over the years had become a fairly reliable judge
of people. One night he picked up a fare who appeared to be a desperate man.
The man asked to be taken to the corner of Providence and Queen roads and there
commanded the cabbie to stop. For a long time they just sat in the cab with the
meter running. The man said nothing, just stared. The next night the incident was
repeated. By the third night the cabbie became suspicious. He happened to
notice a supermarket and a drug store across the way, and the thought that his
fare just might be casing the place for a holdup entered his mind. So he said to
the man, "I need some cigarettes; I'll be right back." While in the store he
called the police. The police arrived shortly after and they asked the man why
he came night after night to this particular corner.
The man pointed
to a window in the Myers Park United Methodist Church, a gorgeous, beautifully
back-lit stained glass window. He said, "I never had much religion. I didn't
even know how to pray. My wife is very sick, and the doctors tell me she is
real bad. But then I found this window. Something about its light gives me
strength and peace, and somehow looking at it I have the words to pray."
What that man
prayed I do not know. The words which came to him are really incidental, but I
believe that he received his answer in the peace and strength he found. That
strength and peace is the gift of God Himself. The asking was simply being
present to the presence and power of God -- the Holy Spirit -- of which that man
was reminded in the sight of that window.
Prayer has more
to do with our recognition of the Person and His Power, greater than our own.
That is the asking. That is the seeking. That is the knocking. That brings
the finding.
In Christ who
answers prayer.
Brown
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