God The Blesser

God the Blesser

Read: Matthew 7:7-12

“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 7:11

“God’s gifts put man’s best dreams to shame.”

—Elizabeth Barrett Browning

IN WORD Crying out to God in a situation of need is a normal—and universal—human experience. But when we cry out, what do we expect? Don’t we often ask from a heart filled with despair, as though our prayer is only a shot in the dark? “I have no doubt He’ll hear it,” we think, “but He probably won’t answer. I’ll plead as a last resort, but I’m not holding my breath.” In other words, we pray with high hopes but low expectations. We make false assumptions about our Father’s willingness to give.

God is a blesser by nature. He gave us life. He gave us a beautiful creation. He sustains our every moment of existence. We’ve rebelled and corrupted it all. And His response is merciful. Through miracle after miracle, He brought His people into a saving relationship with Him, and He has demonstrated His commitment throughout the millennia to continue saving. He gave us unequivocal, mind-boggling promises about the power of prayer. And yet we still think He might be reluctant to hear us in our hour of need.

IN DEED This is what sin does to people. It corrupts our understanding of God. We come to see Him as a distant Sovereign who only rarely grants us His favor. We think He is reluctant to grace us with His gifts when, in fact, He constantly gives us His grace. With pretty strong language, Jesus attacks this distorted concept of the Father. It is an abominable view that assumes God’s generosity is comparable to man’s. No, Jesus says. God blesses. Lavishly. Far beyond our comprehension. It’s who He is.

Every petition must begin here. We pray without faith—and therefore without much result—when we start with a lesser view of God. The one who comes to God with the assumption that He blesses will find that He actually does.