He Will Provide

"How much more will the Heavenly Father give . . . ?"

Can you or I or wise theologians even begin to guess how much our Heavenly Father will give us? We human beings only understand finite things, so to even try to wrap our heads around the infinite nature of God's love and mercy is impossible. We just can't ever know how much God can and will provide.

In some ways, that's incredibly frustrating! We don't know how amazing and unending God's love is, and often I think we give up on prayer and trusting because we don't know: "Well, I've been praying about this for so long, and nothing. Is God listening? Does He care? Is my prayer in vain?"

Never! Jesus tells us in the Gospel to ask, ask, and ask! Knock! The story he tells to illustrate His point basically is a blueprint for our prayer. If the friend got up to answer the door just because of the man's persistence, Jesus is telling me, "KEEP ON PRAYING. DO NOT GIVE UP. God will give you SO MUCH MORE than you can even imagine. Knock. Ask. Seek ME." Not only does Jesus tell us to pray, seek, and knock, He assures us that "it will be given to you . . . you will find . . . [the door] will be opened to you."

Are we trusting Jesus enough to believe it? Are we asking, seeking, knocking with the belief and hope that we will be answered and God will provide for us?

I try to trust and believe in Jesus' promise that our Heavenly Father will give us all we need, and so much more. I find it hard to even understand how God could give me more than I need or want, when I don't even know what I need and want (at least, I think I know, but God knows best). It seems impossible sometimes for God to "work all things for the good" in my life when everything seems so insane and disordered that from my point of view. There is nowhere even to begin to untangle and make sense of the crazy mess that my life seems to be some days.

I wonder if I was needing something at 3am, would I keep knocking on my neighbor's door until I got what I needed? Do I consider what these words mean not only for God's promise to me, but the example He is setting for my life? Will I look at the needs of my friends, family, neighbors, and strangers in a new way? When my kids are "knocking" at 3am, for fourth time that night, will I grumble, or give generously as our Heavenly Father does? When a relative calls in need but it is an inconvenience, will I turn them away, or give of my time? When I see a need anywhere, will I pray and see how God might want to use me and work through me to touch the life of someone in need?

Trusting in God's great plan, His unending love and mercy, and abounding graces and providence is hard. Opening myself to be generous with my life to others in need is hard. Letting God work in my life in His time is hard. Letting God work through me to touch others is hard. And yet, Jesus reassures us that it will be done, abundantly and so much better than we can imagine, if we only ask!