We all know the story of the wishing well and the pennies we toss in. If we make a wish, the well is forced to give us what we want.
Is God’s Word a wishing well? Do we read the verses we want, and his Word becomes a fountain of material gifts?
Hardly.
Even so, God wishes us to ask for good things from him. If we are following him and living according to his Word, he will answer our prayers, for he is a good father, and he wishes for the best for his children.
In this seven-part series on God’s Wishing Well, we will discover the things he wants us to ask him for. In today’s message we will learn that God wishes us to turn to him for material blessings.
God speaks to us first in Matthew 7:9. “Is there anyone out there who has a son, and when he asks his father for a loaf of bread, he gives him a stone, instead?”
This verse seems too ridiculous to be an honest analogy. What parent would set a plate in front of his or her child with a stone on it? That is exactly the point. No one. Not even our Father in heaven.
There is one caveat to this promise, though. God must be our father. The children of this world have no right to come to him, for they have another father, one who fell from grace long before God created the world.
This is such an important point, that in case we didn’t get it, God emphasized it further in the very next verse. Matthew 7:10 continues with, “If your son asks for fish sticks, will you put live serpents on his plate?”
God brings it home to us in Matthew 7:11. In the previous two verses, he’s given us extreme examples to make his point. Then, in this verse, he brings it back to our level.
“If humanity, even without God’s leadership, knows how to provide good things to their children, will not God in heaven give even better gifts to his children when they come before him?”
How do we get these things? There are three steps involved.
Step 1:
Recognize our sinful state and accept Jesus as our savior.
Step 2:
Read God’s Word and follow it to the best of our ability.
Step 3:
Have faith in God to provide all our needs.
In Matthew 21:22 Jesus says it best. If we ask for anything in prayer, and we put our trust in our Father above, it is ours.
God is the creator of all the stars in the heavens. Every good thing on earth is his. There is no limit to the riches in his storehouses.
How can we not believe he will give us the desires of our hearts if we come to him? After all, if we are walking with him, the desires of our hearts will be the same as the desires of his. We will want what he wishes to give us.
When we align our hearts with God’s heart, the material blessings we ask him for will be the ones he intends to shower on us anyway.
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