Sunday, March 15, 2009

How much more

Matthew 7:7-11, ESV

“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. Or 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!”

This is the primary reading for Lent, Week Three. If you have comments, reflections, or insights from your work, either inspired by the meditations in the guide or on your own, please share them in the comments for this post.

Again, you can stay with this reading for the full week, or move on to one or more of the supplemental selections we will be posting.
link: The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Asking, seeking, knocking. This is a scary thing. This is to be vulnerable in a whole new way…to be vulnerable…To open up a new part of myself to the one who sees, knows, and hears everything. Even though I know God in some parts of my life, I now sense that there are areas/ aspects of my life which I have closed off from Him, and it is those areas which He is waiting for me to share.

Some time ago, the Lord showed me that a dear friend had been married and divorced and that one of her two children had this different father – but she never spoke about this, never talked about it. Even the two children only knew one father, the man to whom she was now married. For more than five years I prayed that she would be strengthened and healed in the Lord enough to be able to talk about this. By the time she got around to ‘telling’ me, I could only smile and nod, not the least bit surprised or shocked – after all, I had been praying for her for all that time about this part of her life. This was a cherished friend, someone I really enjoyed being with. When she ‘told’ me, I was deeply grateful she had reached this place of speaking openly about this part of her past, grateful for the healing the Lord had brought to her to overcome what was to her a shameful and disturbing part of her life. I never told her that the Lord had told me about this long before – I just received with gratitude what she felt comfortable sharing with me.

How much more so is our Father gently waiting for me to share with Him this other aspect of my life? This is a worry, a burden, that I do not need to carry alone any longer.