Good Gifts, Luke 11:11-13

"If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?"

     Life is hard. There are trials, there are difficulties, there are let-downs. There is pain, there is suffering, and there is sorrow. But we don't have to walk this road alone; we don't have to live this life in our own strength. God has promised us the greatest gift of all (aside from that of salvation!): The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God Himself, living within us. And this gift is not hard to attain, rather, you need simply to ask for it, for all who ask, receive (Luke 11:10).
     Were we left to get through this life and walk down this narrow road alone, we would surely never make it. We would have accepted Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, and yet, we would still be the same person as we were before, stumbling and falling-- or even walking right into-- sin. As defiled temples, completely unfit for inhabitation by a glorious and holy God such as ours, we could never expect to be filled with the very presence of God Himself. But because the blood of Jesus washes away all sin, cleansing us to the very core and making us righteous in the eyes of God, we are now able, by the righteousness of Christ having been imparted to us, to have the Holy Spirit dwell within us.
     Through the power of the Holy Spirit our lives become transformed and new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." This newness and regeneration is possible only because of the power of the Holy Spirit. We are now able to have victory over sin, resist the temptations of the enemy, and withstand in the day of trial. We are now more than conquerers through Him who loved us-- And we need not ever fear defeat, for Christ is always victorious.
     This power, this ability to walk in the ways of God triumphantly, again, is not something hard to attain, but simply we need to ask for it. By asking God to fill us and baptize us with His Holy Spirit, we then become empowered by the Spirit to do God's will. God gives to each of us in the church certain giftings and abilities in order to carry out the purpose for which He created and saved us. These giftings are called spiritual gifts (see 1 Corinthians 12).

     Jesus proves His exceeding love for us in the statements He makes about earthly fathers giving their children good gifts. He says, "If your son asks you for bread, will you give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will you give him a serpent? If he asks for an egg, will you offer him a scorpion?" These statements almost make me laugh because of their absurdity-- of course you would not give your son a serpent, a stone, or a scorpion. Those things would hurt him!
     But yet, when we ask God for a husband (or a wife), we think He's going to give us someone we have to put up with or someone who we think is unattractive or someone undesirable in some way. When we ask God for a home, we think that He is going to give us a pathetic little shack to sleep in that leaks when it rains. We ask Him for food to eat, and we think He is going to give us stale crackers and dirty water... The bare minimum. But if people (people, being corrupt and evil) know how to give good things to those who ask, if people look out for each other and give abundantly, how much more will God give us good things? And to prove that God wants to give us good things, and not evil or detestable things, Jesus tells us that God wants to give the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks. This is a gift far more precious than any earthly blessing we could possibly imagine. And if God will give us this so freely and willingly, will He withhold those other things from us? Surely not!

     Remember: God wants to bless you! He readily and freely pours out His Spirit upon all who ask-- And as far as everything else goes, He wants to bless us with those things as well. Ask, and it shall be given; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door shall be opened.