Saturday, January 11, 2014

Sermon on the Mount --for everyone who asks, receives

For everyone who asks, receives.

Without qualification, our Lord is saying, whoever asks will receive.

But it seems that our every day experience tells us otherwise. Who is there who has ever lived who has not received something he has prayed for?

(Everyone prays. Everyone makes requests to God. Do I know this for certain? I know myself. As a person, I know that in my desperation I always pray. Who is there among humanity who at one time is not so desperate that he does not pray? “There are no athiests in foxholes.” is, I believe, a true proverb.)

So where does our Lord's truth intersect with the truth of our experience?

A clue is in the next verse, “for which one of you, having a son...”

The One to Whom we pray is not a mindless computer. The One to Whom we ask is the Heavenly Father who gives precisely what is good and kind for us. When we ask, He gives us the best thing.

Pity poor Solomon who got everything on this earth he could imagine to want. His assessment of life? “Vanity of vanities all is vanity."

May we trust our Heavenly Father that as we ask of Him, He will give us all good things.



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