Notice on a slight format change:

Except for July 2012, these are mostly a collection of current devotional notes.

July 2012 is a re-write of old quiet times. My second child was born Nov 11, 1987 with multiple birth defects. I've been re-reading my QT notes from that time in my life, and have included them here. They cover the time before the birth and the few years immediately after the birth. They are tagged "historical." I added new insights and labeled them: ((TODAY, dd mmm yy)).

Sunday, September 8, 2024

QT 9/8/2024 Matt 7:7-11, Good gifts

Matthew 7:7–11 (ESV) —

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

 

NOTE: Our church is conducting a season of seeking, 40 days of fasting, feasting, and fellowshipping. The purpose is to spend time seeking God, confessing sin, and asking God what it is he wants to do in our lives to serve him. In the passage above, God says he is like a Father (and much more) and he desires to give good gifts to his children. The issue is that what we think a good gift is and what God thinks is a good gift are very different. We may even see God's good gift as a bad thing, because we can't see the big picture.

 

My life has had a number of bad things happened over the years. Whether they were direct from God or something that he took and brought good out of it, they were not things I would have wanted at the time. There is no doubt that I grew and learned from those things. Still, I might not choose those things, but they were good for me, just hard.

 

PONDER:

  1. What am I learning from the hard things in life?
  2. Do I thank God for all things that happen to me in life, knowing God is in charge?

 

PRAYER: Lord, give me your perspective on the things that happen in my life. You promise to give good things and you promise to use things for good to those who love you.

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