Much More – The Presidential Prayer Team

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

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presents the values and lifestyle of those who are and will be in God’s kingdom. He set everyone back on their heels as He advocated revolutionary changes in their thought processes. Love your enemies, turn the other cheek when someone harms you, walk an extra mile when forced to walk one, and take the log from your own eye before you remove the speck from someone else’s (Matthew 5-7).

Even the ones who know how to give good gifts to their children are called evil. In fact, this evil is not just a flaw which keeps you from being and doing what you should be and do; the apostle Paul speaks of this dilemma in Romans 7:15-21. The evil referenced today is the rebellion against God in the heart of each person. The natural man resists God. It is only the transforming work of Jesus that can change a person’s direction.

Jesus encouraged His followers to pray in humility before God. He said you will be rewarded because He knows what you need before you even ask (Matthew 6:5-6, 8). Take joy in that the Father will do much more than you can anticipate. Matthew Henry, the 18^th Century scholar and author, said, “His love, his tenderness and His goodness far excel any earthly parent.” God has all knowledge, kindness, and riches, and He is more ready to give than any earthly father.

Call upon your Heavenly Father at any time. He is merciful and gracious and able to do far more abundantly than you can ask or think (Ephesians 3:20-21). Request His mercy and grace on this nation, that the evil in this nation would be transformed into good.

Today’s Verse: Matthew 7:11

¹If 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!

All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Recommended for further reading: Ephesians 3:14-21

¹⁴For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

²⁰Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.