Daily Manna · Day 189 · July 8
How Much More
“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”
A child comes into the kitchen and asks for bread. That is the whole scene Jesus builds His argument on, and He keeps it that ordinary on purpose.
Over the years, your praying may have shrunk. You used to ask for the whole thing, and now you ask for help to cope. Coping seems more likely to be granted, and if you ask for less, the disappointment costs less.
Look at how the argument works. The insulting half is aimed at us, and Jesus means it: "If ye then, being evil." That is what He calls ordinary, decent parents, and He does not soften it. Yet even they, being what they are, do not hand a hungry child a stone or a serpent. Jesus reasons from the lesser to the greater, a common way of arguing in His day. If flawed parents manage this much, how much more will the perfect Father give? Notice that the words change at the end, too. The parents give "good gifts," and the Father gives "good things." When Luke reports the same saying, the good thing is "the Holy Spirit." That tells you what Jesus thinks is the best gift God has to give.
That is also why some answers look like refusals for a long time. God measures what is good from His side, where He can see everything. A parent who never once said no would not be a good parent, only a worn-out one.
So take the promise exactly as it is written. Your Father will "give good things to them that ask him." There is no mention of asking correctly, or of earning a hearing. Asking is the whole qualification, and asking is what a child does long before it can spell.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 189 is Some Great Thing (2 Kings 5:13).