Today’s scripture: Matthew 7:7-10 (ESV-text and audio) (KJV) (The Message) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Julie Walsh):
Isn’t it ironic that we ask God for attributes that will make us more righteous and holy, but whine when God is actually helping us achieve the attributes we asked for?
I was feeling a little low on patience the other day, so during my time of reflection with God I prayed for patience.
The next day we sat in a three-hour traffic back-up under a load that had already left late to the customer. Numerous dispatchers, who weren’t communicating amongst themselves, were calling our phones and sending messages to the truck asking why we weren’t moving. Each caller expressed concern that the production lines on the factory’s floor would shut down until they received the parts off our truck. We sat anxiously as we crawled and stopped and sat and crawled through endless delays.
When we returned home a couple days later, we went out to dinner with a lovely couple and their not-so-well-behaved children. They were restless the entire meal: regularly interrupting conversation, ducking beneath the table, doing acrobatics off their chairs, and wandering aimlessly throughout the restaurant “visiting” other guests along the way. The parents seemed oblivious to the rude manners these kids displayed. With the gazes of other patrons focused on our table, I squirmed until the meal wrapped up and we could exit.
On the way home from dinner I was in the mood for ice cream, so we went to a local dairy bar. While we were sitting at the drive-through window after placing our order, we noticed a small sign stating that they only accept cash, which neither of us had. Strike one. So we pulled into Dairy Queen, but it was dark. A sign greeted us on the front door explaining that they were closed all day for training. Strike two. We finally relented and just went to McDonald’s for a milkshake, but learned from the lady in the drive-through box that their ice cream machine was not working. Strike three!
Jesus makes a beautiful promise to us in this passage: Ask and it will be given to you… We ask for bread, but what we get looks like a stone. We asked for patience, but it sure looks like a whole lot of chaos and tribulation instead. But Jesus assures us that our request will not be misguided: If [you] ask for a fish, who will give you a snake?
Jesus says: Knock and the door will be opened to you… The name of that door is tribulation. What lies behind that door is patience — or whatever attribute you have asked for. We have to decide if we open the door just a crack or swing it wide open. Will we respond to crazy events and circumstances the same way we always have, or will we pursue the attributes we long to achieve?
Thought for the day: Today’s tribulation may be opening the door to an even greater blessing!
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.