Daily Prayer: Asking the Father Who Already Wants to Give
Daily Prayer: Asking the Father Who Already Wants to Give
"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 the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
— Luke 11:13
I was folding a blanket my daughter left on the couch when she visited last weekend — the soft one she's always gravitated toward since she was about twelve — and I just held it for a second before I put it away.
Not in a sad way. More like a noticing way.
She's an adult now, living her own life, doing it pretty well. And I still think about her constantly. I still want good things for her in this deep, almost unreasonable way that has nothing to do with whether she remembered to text me back.
That's Just What Loving Someone Does to You
There's something about being a parent that recalibrates your understanding of the word want. Not want like "I want the last piece of cake." Want like: I would give you everything I have without thinking twice, and also I already thought twice, and the answer is still everything.
Which is probably why Luke 11:13 lands the way it does when I actually slow down enough to read it.
Jesus is making what feels like a fairly gentle argument. He's saying: look, you're human. You're imperfect. You get tired, you get selfish, you sometimes give your kid cereal for dinner because it's that kind of week. And even you know how to give good things to someone you love. So what do you think God — who is none of those things — wants to give you?
The "How Much More" Part Gets Me Every Time
I think what I miss sometimes is the direction of the asking.
I'll pray like I'm petitioning a reluctant committee. Like I need to make my case, present supporting documentation, and hope for a favorable ruling sometime in the next fiscal quarter. Which — when I write it out like that — sounds a little ridiculous.
But Jesus isn't describing a God who needs convincing. He's describing a Father who is already inclined toward generosity. Already leaning in. Already wanting to give — specifically the Holy Spirit, which is not a small thing. That's not a parking spot or a smooth commute. That's God's own presence.
And the condition is just: ask.
Asking Like I Mean It
My husband and I were talking the other night about how we both tend to under-ask. Not in a dramatic, unworthy way — more in a distracted, I-forgot-I-could way. Like a person who stands in front of an open refrigerator and then wanders off hungry because they didn't really look.
I think sometimes I do that with prayer. I'm technically present. I'm going through the motions. But I'm not actually asking with the expectation that something real might happen.
This verse nudges me back toward that expectation. The "how much more" isn't rhetorical decoration. It's the whole point. It's Jesus saying: your love for your child, as real and good as it is, is a tiny shadow of what God feels toward you. So ask accordingly.
The Blanket, and What I Actually Want
I put the blanket back on the couch, for the record. It can live there. It's not in the way.
And standing in my living room, thinking about my daughter, thinking about how much I hope good things find her — I thought about how God must feel something like that toward me, only without the limits. Without the worry. Without the uncertainty about whether it'll all work out.
He already knows it works out. And He's already offering more than I think to ask for.
That's worth sitting with. That's worth actually praying about — not just thinking about, not just writing a blog post about, but actually getting still and asking for.
So I'm going to go do that.
A Prayer for Today
God, I don't always ask like I believe You want to give. I think I'm protecting myself from disappointment, or maybe I just forget that You're actually here and actually listening. But this verse won't leave me alone today, so here I am.
I want more of Your Spirit. The kind that makes me patient when I'm not naturally inclined to be. The kind that helps me love the people in my everyday life — really love them, not just manage them. The kind that makes me less distracted and more present.
I'm asking. Not because I've earned it or figured it all out, but because You said to ask, and because You're good at giving good things. I trust that. Help me trust it more.
Amen.
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