Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Matthew chapter 7, verse 11.

If 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?

I love this verse. It comes on the heels of Jesus talking about his promises to give us what we need in prayer. Ask and it will be given you,

seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you. He says in verse 7,

for everyone who asks, receives the one who seeks, find, it's the one who knocks, it will be

open. But then we immediately think when we read these verses about times when God has not given

us what we asked for, where we've prayed for something, and God's not answered in the way we've asked him to move

or work or provide. But this is where these next three verses culminating in verse 11, which I read,

are so important. Because Jesus says, which of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone. I think about if my kids are

hungry and they ask for food, there's no chance I would give them a rock. No way. And I am not a

perfect father like God is. I am a sinner. If you then who are evil, he says in verse 11,

or if his son or daughter asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent. Like, who, what parent

who loves their child would give their child a snake that would harm them instead of fish that

would feed them? Like, no way. And Jesus is saying,

that's you as a sinful parent. God is a perfect father and he delights in giving good things to

those who ask him. And as a perfect father, he knows what we need.

He knows what is best for us.

And so when we pray, we can pray with confidence and we can ask with confidence for all kinds

of things, knowing that we can trust God with what we've asked for.

That there's nothing we could ask for that's beyond his power to do.

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