Good gifts from God
Excerpt taken from Daily Manna Calvary Jurong
2015 Oct 11-
Luke 11:13 – If ye then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your
children: how much more shall
your heavenly Father give the Holy
Spirit to them that ask Him?
Having taught the disciples how to pray, as well as
providing them a guideline, Christ exhorts them
to exercise themselves in prayer, using simple examples
which every one of us can relate to even now.
Furthermore, He shows us the extent to which God
the Father is willing to answer our prayers. Instead of
the human friend who often has to be entreated many
times before being willing to aid us, we have a Father in
heaven Who is willing at any point in time to provide us
with what is best for us.
Why then, are we sometimes reluctant to pray?
Perhaps the problem that some of us face is the instance
of sin in our lives. Many times, we feel that because of
our sins, we are unworthy to come before God and ask
Him for our daily needs. However, we are getting things
mixed up. It is when we see how sinful our thoughts,
words and deeds actually are that it is the best time to fall
on our knees in humble, contrite prayer and go to our
Father who is willing to forgive our sins if we are truly
convicted.
Let us also remember the wonderful example of
Elijah provided for us in James 5:17-18, where he, a man
subject to like emotions and feelings as us, could pray
with such faith that God indeed shows that He hears
and answers prayer by the working of great miracles. Let
us have the same faith and trust in our heavenly Father.
Application:
- Persistence
- Persevere
- Present
The more we pray to God, the more our language improves as we want to present our thoughts and petitions in more ways than one. We make use of different words to emphasize our points to God and the worshippers although it does not mean God does not understand our thoughts. Take the word “wisdom” for example, it will soon get pretty dry and repetitive when everyone prays for wisdom using the word “wisdom” specifically. How else can we present our petitions before God on wisdom?
That is why God wants us to talk to him daily, chew on the devotional verse which we have acquired from in the morning, and meditate throughout the whole day. Even the memory verse can be a component of our prayer and petitions before God.
Synonyms for Wisdom:
- intelligence,
- understanding,
- insight,
- perception,
- Percipience – the quality of having sensitive insight or understanding; perceptiveness.
- penetration,
- perspicuity,
- acuity,
- discernment,
- sense,
- good sense,
- common sense
- shrewdness,
- astuteness,
- acumen,
- smartness,
- judiciousness,
- judgement,
- foresight,
- clear-sightedness,
- prudence,
- circumspection;
- logic,
- rationale,
- rationality,
- soundness,
- saneness,
- advisability;
- informally used
- sharpness;
- savvy,
- smarts;
- rarley used.
- sapience
- having or showing great wisdom or sound judgment.
- But her “sapience,” as you excellently call it, passes all decent bounds.
- Arguteness = being acute.
- sapience
Interesting... diary of a pilgrim 