His Good Pleasure, Luke 12:32

"Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

     This verse clearly displays the willingness of God to make us co-heirs with the Christ, thereby giving us the kingdom of heaven. It is not in reluctance that He gives to us, nor by force. It is not that He made a prior promise to give us the kingdom, but later decided that He didn't really want to have anything to do with us anymore, but he, being bound to His word, must do so. No, it is not anything like that. He wants to bless us, He wants to give us the kingdom: It is His good pleasure to do so.

     How many times do we think that God is giving us just the bare minimum of what we need, having the perception that God doesn't want us to become materialistic and therefore gives us only those things which He deems we need, which we consider to be less than the things we think we need...? How often do we doubt that God will bless us, that He will answer our prayers, that He will give to us the desires of our hearts? We take scripture and we analyze it to the point of removing all blessing from our lives. Scripture tells us that He is able to do abundantly beyond all we can ask or imagine, yet we focus on the words "He is able" and say that this doesn't conclude that He is willing or wanting, just that He is able. The verse then becomes a picture of His omnipotence and power, not of His abundant grace and mercy on us.
     But this is foolishness, and this is not God. This is the enemy, lying to us, telling us that yes, God loved us enough to provide salvation for us, but that He wants us to live barren and miserable lives in order that we may suffer and become more godly through our suffering. We are lied to and told that we have sinned far too much for His blessings to be as great as other people's, and we believe him, though we know that God's blessings are all on the basis of God's grace and mercy, and that all have sinned, and thus all are equally undeserving of any of God's blessings.

     James tells us to ask in faith, not doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of teh sea driven with the wind and tossed. He says let not that man think that he shall receive anything of God. And again, the enemy and our own logic will come in and tell us that we can't receive anything because we always have a shred of doubt which precludes us from receiving any blessing, and that we ought not even to bother asking because of this doubt in our hearts. But Jesus said that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed we can move mountains. If we have enough faith to ask, then this shows that we have faith, and thus God hears us and will answer us according to His will.
     Jesus said if we, being evil (sinful), know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them which ask? Such a blessing as the Holy Spirit is given simply by asking. And yet again, the enemy will come to us and say, "sure, He will give you His Spirit, but He won't give you anything else... Anything else would just be too much. Don't ask Him, you are being selfish and greedy. Be thankful for what you have." But such a concept puts the gift of the Holy Spirit down as being something low, debase, and hardly worth our while. But is having the God of the universe, the Creator of heaven and earth, the Maker of all mankind and all animal and plant life, the One who spread the stars throughout the skies and stretched forth the vastness of the oceans and all life therein, live inside you, mere mortal flesh, sinful and rebellious, a gift to be taken lightly?? I think not! And if God will bestow such a wonderful and marvelous, unearned and undeserved gift as this upon us, how much more will He give us food, a home, a car, a job, a ministry in which to serve Him, a husband or wife, and all those things which are so insignificant but so seemingly necessary for life, at least life in the United States as we know it?