“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread will give him a stone…If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:11-13).
“The story of every great Christian achievement is the history of answered prayer.” – E. M. Bounds
What is the Father’s heart? The simple petition of a humble child reveals the heart of a father.
As I write this, Jessica and I are about to become parents for the first time. In just over one month, our son will be born. As we get closer to the due date, our instincts for parenting continue to grow and manifest. Jessica has decorated the nursery and carefully chosen baby seats, high chairs, clothes, diapers, and all the other paraphernalia that you need to care for a baby. Yesterday, I caught myself thinking about how to start putting aside money to pay for our child’s education. As loving parents, our goal is to do everything we can to provide for our child, protect our child, and raise our child in the best way possible. God the Father feels the same way about His children.
When we come to the Father with a prayer request, we are like little children. He looks at us as His children and we should look to Him with the same simple faith that a child has when she looks at her beloved daddy.
Imagine a little child running up to her father and shouting, “Daddy, daddy, I’m hungry.” How would the father respond? If a son asks for bread, would the father give him a stone? If a daughter asks to be picked up, would a loving father beat her instead? No, a loving father is attentive to the needs of his children and will do anything He can to make his child’s life easier. God will do the same for us!
The child comes to her father with a simple faith. In her eyes, her daddy is the solver of all problems. Her daddy is superman. For her daddy, nothing is impossible.
Jesus said, “You must become as a little child to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Luke 18:17). When you pray today, trust God with the same simple faith that a child has towards her loving father.
Check out Daniel King’s book: The Power of Prayer
