Hello, my friends. Welcome back to another Pray Together episode. I'm excited that you're

here because this opportunity we have to pray together is perfectly aligned with the

instruction that Jesus gives us about prayer. Let me read to you from Matthew chapter 7,

verses 7 through 11. It says, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find

knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks

finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened. Which one of you, if his son asks

him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?

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? Now, friends,

what I am so excited about when I read this passage is that number one, it communicates

to us the heart of our father, God, the eternal God, the eternal Father in heaven. He has

a heart that is disposed toward us for our good. And the example Jesus gives tells us that

if we being sinful people, understand what it means to give good things to our own children.

How much more will God our father do that toward us when we ask him for good things?

Now, the second thing that this tells me is that we can be confident that when we ask

him for things that are on our hearts, he will do for us what is good in that situation.

Notice that last phrase, your father, who is in heaven, will give good things to those

who ask him. Many times, we don't know how to ask, we don't even know if the thing

we're asking for is the right thing or the best thing, but praise the Lord, he knows,

and he will answer according to the very best thing. We can be assured of that. So as

we come together today to pray for the many requests that have been submitted, I want

to encourage you to pray with that kind of confidence. Your good father, the good father

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