Ian Barclay's Thought For The Day

A CHRISTIAN LOOKS AT MATTHEW'S GOSPEL
To whom are we praying?
Reading: Matthew 7:9-11 Click to view passage

You can’t pray without sometimes asking the question, “To whom am I praying?” Jesus gives us the answer, it is to “your Father in heaven,” (v11). We have no need to be concerned, there is no way he is unwilling to hear us and we don’t have to pressure him into answering our prayers.
To illustrate the Father’s impartial love and his plentiful provision for us, Jesus uses the basic necessities of people of his time in the East. These needs are “bread” and “fish.” The point is that in both cases the Father won’t give us look-a-likes that don’t satisfy. If a son asks for bread he isn’t given a little round limestone from the shore that has the colour and shape of a loaf. Nor if the son asks for a fish will he give him a …….? Most scholars think that Jesus here refers to an eel. A fish the Law didn’t allow Jews to eat (Leviticus 11:12)

All that the Father gives will satisfy and they will be “good gifts.”In the parallel passage in Luke the “good gifts”become “the Holy Spirit.” (Luke 11:13). I like that because the Holy Spirit is the basic necessity of the spiritual life!

Meditation: Think about how Jesus describes the Holy Spirit in Johns gospel. In John 16 he implies that the Holy Spirit is the-stand-in-replacement for himself who every believer possesses until we go to heaven.

Prayer pointer: Thanks giving that we come to Father who gives “good gifts.”which satisfy.
Matthew:35