<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nMatthew 7:9-11<\/b>\u00a0<\/a><\/span>\u00a0Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?\u00a0Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?\u00a0If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!<\/p>\n
Psalm 16:11<\/b>\u00a0<\/a><\/span>\u00a0You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.<\/p>\n
Matthew 11:28<\/b>\u00a0<\/a><\/span>\u00a0Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.<\/p>\n
Jhon 6:35<\/b>\u00a0<\/a><\/span>\u00a0Jesus said to them, \u201cI am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Recently, as I watched my eleven-month-old make a mad dash for the open dishwasher, it struck me as remarkably similar to how we can approach God in prayer. Our hearts, like my son\u2019s hands, desire to have, hold, and enjoy. Earthly objects appear good and precious before us. We reach for them through prayer \u2014 unaware of whether we reach for a spoon or a knife.<\/p>\n
The God to whom we pray is our sovereign and kind Father. He cares whether his material gifts do service or harm to his children\u2019s souls, and he truly knows the difference between spoons and knives, bread and stones, fish and serpents (Matthew 7:9\u201311<\/a>). So, whenever necessary, his love says, \u201cNo.\u201d His hands gently pull us back, shutting the door.<\/p>\n
All the while, he assures us that he is not a Father who delights to withhold but to fulfill \u2014 fully, finally, and forever, with the only Object in all existence that can really satisfy us:\u00a0himself<\/em>\u00a0(Psalm 16:11<\/a>).\u00a0Here I am; here is fullness of joy. What you wanted would have hurt you by giving you less of me. Fear not. I have not withheld myself. You shall be full.<\/em><\/p>\n
But we are often too busy wandering around the base of a dishwasher to hear him.<\/p>\n
Do you feel like one prayer after another is going unanswered? Is prayer an exercise in disappointment, sorrow, or even bitterness \u2014 not faith, fellowship, and joy? Jesus sees you, and he wants to free you from experiencing prayer as frustration. But to do that, he will ask you to stop asking mostly for more of his gifts. He will ask you to ask ultimately for more of\u00a0him<\/em>.<\/p>\n
He says the same to all his sheep: \u201cCome to\u00a0me<\/em>, all who labor and are heavy laden, and\u00a0I<\/em>\u00a0will give you rest\u201d (Matthew 11:28<\/a>). Goods and kindred will not do. The good shepherd does not make us lie down in green pastures so that we can become sick on grass. Times of comfort, along with valleys of death, are for communion with Christ. He alone knows how much is too much \u2014 of both ease and affliction. (T. Swanson)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Matthew 7:9-11\u00a0\u00a0Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?\u00a0Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?\u00a0If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven … Continue reading “60.z. Matthew 7:9-11\u00a0\u00a0“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195392"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195395,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195392\/revisions\/195395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}