I give good gifts to My children when they ask.

Matthew 7:11 New International Version (NIV)

11 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 good gifts to those who ask him!

In this part of The Sermon On The Mount, Jesus is encouraging His listeners to not be afraid to ask God for what they need. In the preceding verses, Jesus encourages people to keep on asking, keep on seeking and keep on knocking. The promise that He makes is that those who ask will receive, those who seek will find, and those who knock will have the door opened to them. 

In this particular promise, Jesus relates the hearts of earthly fathers to the heart of His heavenly Father. Even though they are sinful, earthly fathers still know how to give good gifts to their kids. If that is the case, HOW MUCH MORE will the perfect Father (Matthew 5:48) in heaven give good gifts to those who ask?

I remember a time back in January 2001, when I felt the Lord encourage me to ask Him for His blessing on my life and the work of my hands. At the time, I was working on our fathersloveletter.com website which had a steady flow of 3,000 visits per day. After hearing His encouragement to ask Him to bless us, I felt bold enough to ask God to increase the daily visits from 3,000 visits per day to 10,000 visits! 

I thought that was a pretty big step of faith considering that it represented more than a 300% increase. Within one week, our web traffic increased to 10,000 visits per day. Within another week, it had skyrocketed to 30,000 visits per day which was three times what I could even dare to ask for!

I am learning more and more every day that God wants to really be a Father to me (2 Corinthians 6:18) in every area of my life. More than anything else, He wants my heart and He wants me to know that I am His child. A child who has complete unrestricted access to my Dad night and day. I know it pleases His heart most when I seek His face and not just His hand. I know that He loves it when I love Him for Him and not for what He gives me.

However, Jesus still encourages us to ask our Dad for what we need, for He already knows what we need even before we ask! May you find the courage today to go boldly into your heavenly Father's throne room and ask Him for what you need, for He is a giver of every good and perfect gift that flows from heaven (James 1:17).