I Know I will be Given What I Asked For!

I'd read about it, heard about it, prayed about it but never understood it. This Summer I heard a sermon about it and suddenly a light went on. The funny thing is that the answer was there all along but it wasn't until the preacher pointed it out to me that I saw it.

One the first things I'd memorized as a child was the Lord's Prayer. I regularly asked, "Give us each day our daily bread," but I was never really sure just what "daily bread" was. The answer was hidden from me even though it was there in plain view. In Luke 11 where Jesus teaches His disciples this prayer He goes on to explain to them a little more about this principle of asking.

The preacher talked about how in the culture of Jesus' time bread was baked daily. Jesus audience would therefore understand why the man had no bread for his unexpected guests who came at midnight, but the man knew someone who did have what he needed and he wasn't shy about asking for help. Jesus also referred to a child asking his father for food. Jesus made the comment, "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

I heard this sermon at the beginning of the Summer and I have been meditating on it ever since. Not one day goes by that I, like the man who had the midnight visitors, am not faced with situations where I feel like I need to give more than I have. I am comforted that if I ask God for my basic needs He is not going to substitute something harmful. But most of all I have spent the Summer pondering what this means, "how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Oh yes, and I do love it when I find an exclamation point in the Scripture.

Father, I need this daily bread. I do not know what this day holds but You do. I see in Your word that it pleases You for me to ask, to seek and to knock so here I am asking, seeking and knocking. I recognized that I do not posses in myself all I need but I believe You do. But most of all please, please fill me with Your Spirit!