the gift giver

remember how much stuff we used to ask for during Christmas time? we used to sit down and write out as many gift ideas as we could remember from all the cool commercials that we had seen on tv. once the letter was sealed and sent off to santa, we used to await Christmas day with hope, with an expectation that under our tree we would find every gift we wrote down and more! but, what happens when we didn’t get that awesome gift we had asked for? or the couple smaller things that we were really looking forward to? did we lose our hope in santa? did we not write to him the next year because we had felt so betrayed? i can’t say for sure what all of you would answer to that question, but i would have to imagine your answer was no! we didn’t simply lose our hope because a request wasn’t answered, we trusted the gift giver. and once we became of age where we stopped believing in santa, we had realized that our parents had been the gift givers all those years. we look back on all those Christmas’s where they had gotten us all the gifts and toys and cool gadgets we could’ve asked for and the times when we didn’t get everything we asked for. our love, our hope, our confidence was unwavering.

---

yet, we live in a fallen world – we are inherently evil, but we still trust our parents to give us good gifts for Christmas. how silly of us to have this unwavering confidence in fallen men and women, and have a faith that crumbles at the slightest disruption. for God is the perfect giver of good gifts, Jesus tells us ‘if you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him!’ (Matthew 7:11).

but when God doesn’t answer just one of our requests our love, our hope, our confidence feels like it has been misplaced. but guess what? we don’t know what is best for us! we don’t know what we need – we may think we know, but the Creator of the Universe who designed you knows what you need, just as well as He knows what you don’t need. because every unanswered prayer is an answered prayer, amen.

our prayer lives should be full of requests, just like our Christmas lists used to be. and we should await for God to answer our prayers with hope, with an expectation for God to move. though, this hope, this expectation does not come from a blissful ignorance. this hope, this expectation comes from standing firm in what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who died for us has said. 

‘whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. if you ask Me anything in my name, I will do it.’ (John 14:13-14)

‘if you abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.’ (John 15:7)

‘truly, truly I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He will give it to you. unitl now you have asked nothing in my name. ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.’ (John 16:23-24)

the problem is that too many of us aren’t asking God for anything! too many of us are missing out on the fullness of God because we are too afraid to ask! God is never too busy for you, friend.

He is the gift giver who will never fail you, He is the one that we can put our trust in!

‘trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.’ (Proverbs 3:5)

‘and those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.’ (Psalm 9:10)

open your heart back up to God, and let your asking heart transform the world around you. no prayer is too big, and no prayer is too small for the Creator of the Universe who died for you.

now go, trust in the one true gift giver.

He will answer you.

-n0tbychance