God Gives Good Gifts* (to those who ask)

Father, please give us this day our daily bread.  Church family, this is such a simple prayer that we can speak quickly throughout the day without stopping and realizing that we are absolutely totally dependent upon God’s provision for everything in our lives.  And you know, we love some food, specific foods.  So much so, our American food culture has made us really picky.  Did you know that there has been 102 different flavors of Doritos to keep us satisfied but maybe not totally satisfied?  We can run from meeting to event to meeting while quickly grabbing the nearest snack from our box of 24 assorted snacks that we just purchased from the grocery store that had aisle after aisle filled with countless choices of other snacks to meet our hunger needs.  And it is so very easy to fill our bellies with exactly the foods that we choose without a thought that this is my daily bread that God has provided for me today… perfectly.  Everyday God rains down upon us all of our daily needs in the same way He rained down manna from heaven to His children, Israel, in the Wilderness.  God loves to give good gifts to those who ask (Matthew 7:11).  Your Heavenly Father is waiting for you to ask.  He wants us to know, enjoy and rest in total dependence upon Him.  Let’s take a moment and just look at our need for daily bread.  

Why did God make us hungry people?  Our bodies need food.  We do not function well without nourishment.  In fact, usually within hours of our last meal everyone around us knows that we need to eat again because we start to get really short-tempered and angry.  Hunger is an interesting process that happens in our bodies several times each day. We have been designed by God to be reminded of our dependence upon Him through the pangs of hunger.  Every time we get hungry and our stomach tell our minds that we are hungry is the exact moment that our Heavenly Father is gently (or sometime not so gently) reminding us that we are dependent upon Him for our nutrition and sustenance.  God is saying, “Hey!  You need me, remember me, you are dependent upon Me!”

When God softly reminds us through hunger pangs that we are dependent upon Him, He is also reminding us that we cannot make it in this world by ourselves.  Even before sin came into the world in the Garden of Eden, God made us dependent upon Him.  Adam and Eve tended the Garden but they could not make it grow.  Sin did not make us dependent created humans.  We are dependent because we are created humans.  As we pray for God’s Kingdom to come and reign in our hearts and for His Will to be done, we are also told to accept that we are needy people who need our Heavenly Father’s perfect provision.  We cannot make it through this world without God meeting our needs.  So Jesus says, “ask your Heavenly Father for all of your daily needs.”  God, our loving Heavenly Father, wants us to embrace and enjoy the truth that He is able and willing to give us exactly what we need each day.  We have a loving Heavenly Father that loves to give good gifts to His children and we know this because He has already given us the gift to become His children.  

What kind of gifts does God give us?  God only gives good things to His children.  Jesus made it possible through His life and death and resurrection for us to have the privilege to come before a Holy God and make requests.  We were adopted as children of God to make requesting available to us.  As a child of our Heavenly Father, we are tremendously needy for all of the good things that He promises to give to us as long as we ask.  Father, please give us this day our daily bread.  This promise of provision is not just for daily nutrition.  Jesus reminds us to apply this promise to every other need that we have.  What a powerful blessing!  What needs do you have today?  Are you asking?
 
Matthew 7:11 …your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

This Sunday we will be meeting in person at the church building if you would like to join us in person at 10am.  And for those who will be staying at home, we will  be live-streaming on our Grace Community Church Topsail YouTube Channel. Push the blue link.  We can also be found at https://www.gracetopsail.com/

I look forward to worshipping with you Sunday. - Steve