God Gives Good Gifts

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven  give what is good to those who ask Him.” Matthew 7:11

I have heard it before. I’m sure you have heard it before. A friend or family member is talking about God. They are usually going through a trial of some kind and they say something about God hurting them. God is treating them badly. Or they ask the question, “Why is God allowing this in my life?” I have heard some friends or family members say they don’t want to fully commit to God because it might hurt. God might send them to Africa or Antarctica, never to be seen by anyone again. There is a distrust of God. He’s scary. He wants to hurt because through hurt we will change. He wants to change us and nobody likes change. Is that who God is? Does He want to hurt us? Does He not care about our feelings? Is He a big meanie head? (to quote my nephew).

God is getting some bad press. To understand who God is, we need to go to His Word. He tells us in there, who He is, how He treats us, how He cares for us, how much He loves us. There is some good stuff in there. And it’s quite the opposite of what many people say about Him.

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him,” Matthew 7:11

Most of you reading this are parents. If not, you can still relate to this because you most likely had parents in your past or presently. When you are a parent, there is an unbelievable love there. It’s undeniable. You look at your child and your heart leaps. You would do anything for your child. You would scale the highest mountain, swim the deepest ocean, run the longest road just to help your child if they needed it. We as parents often question ourselves. Are we doing all we can for our kids? How are they doing? What’s going on in their noggins? We like to delight our kids. Just tonight, I ran to the grocery store to get some toilet paper and I saw these cute little tic tac containers that looked like baby chicks. They were so cute. I had to buy two of them for each of my kids. They were delighted when I got home. It’s not like I broke the bank for them. They were just a cute after thought. I knew my kids would enjoy them.

God says that if I, being evil, know how to give good gifts to my kids, how much more will God give what is good to those who ask? I gave my kids tic tacs and they didn’t even ask for them. God is in heaven and He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. I think He can do better than tic tacs. I mean, am I right?

“Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone. Or, if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake,” Matthew 7:9-10

The verses before Matthew 7:11 tell exactly how God treats us. He treats us better than we treat our own kids. None of us give our kids stones when they ask for bread. None of us give our kids snakes when they ask for fish. We might give them tic tacs, but those are something they didn’t ask for. God is telling us the standard He goes by. The standard is better than how we treat our own kids. Put that in the bank. Better…than…we…treat…our…own…kids. Hmmm, that’s quite a comparison. Think about how you treat your own kids. God trumps you. He does better than that.

God is NOT a meanie head as some may think. He loves us. He loves us more than we love our own kids. Put some thought into that. How do you feel about your own kids? What gifts have you given your kids? God does way better than that. Think about that birthday present you bought your child. Think about the time and money you spent getting the gift for them. You knew it would delight them. You couldn’t wait to see them open it. Think about all of that. Now remember God does better than that to His children. If you don’t want to be dropped off at the end of the earth, God knows that about you. He’s not going to drop you off at the end of the earth just to torture you. He loves you. He does way better than the way you treat your own kids. He does way better than tic tacs.